Talking on a Broken Line
by everybrandnewmorning
Summary: Blaine's in Colorado, finding the Elton Walker School for Boys isn't what he thought it would be, Kurt's in New York trying to find new hobbies in Blaine's absence, Hunter is questioning his choice to stay on the straight and narrow, and Peter is trying relentlessly to track down Mr. Clarington. What could possibly go wrong? (Sequel to No Day But Today)
1. Chapter 1

**So this story is a sequel of my story No Day But Today. I know I left some people shocked with the ending of the other story...you will have to read on to see if things are as they appear. I've also gotten several questions when this story is going to be more like White Collar, but I never set out with that as my intention. This story is really a Blaine story that just has a different background story to his character. It's going to follow a much more music/Glee focus, with some bit of ties to the world of White Collar. I hope you enjoy!**

Chapter 1

Blaine threw his Metallica shirt into his suitcase in frustration. He was annoyed that he was being sent off to boarding school and he was feeling lost and confused about having just broken up with Kurt a couple hours before. Was it really the right thing to do? It made sense in the moments leading up to it, but now that he was thinking about it…

The door to Blaine's room slammed open.

"I'm not going to let you do it!"

Kurt stood in the doorway looking even more disheveled then he had a couple hours before.

"I'm not going to let you break up with me just because you think you're helping me in some twisted way!" Kurt yelled out, not caring that he was sure Cooper, Peter and Elizabeth all could hear him from downstairs. "I don't care what kind of hero complex you have, I love you and that's all that matters. I can make you living all the way in Colorado work, as long as you are willing to…"

Blaine had heard enough. He pulled Kurt close to him and pulled him into a passionate and deep kiss. Hands were everywhere, each boy trying to pull the other closer so they could feel even more connected. When they pulled apart they were both trying hard to catch their breath, but feeling closer than they ever had before.

"You're right," Blaine said, still breathing heavily. "I shouldn't have broken up with you."

"I'm glad you can see sense," Kurt said, a little smirk appearing on his face.

Kurt stepped closer to Blaine with a smile, and then lifted up his hand and then punched Blaine hard in the arm.

"Ow what was that for?" Blaine asked, rubbing his sore upper arm.

"For putting me through that today, Blaine!" Kurt replied.

"Okay," Blaine sighed, a little smiled appearing on his face. He couldn't help it. He just couldn't stay mad at Kurt.

Then Blaine caught site of the suitcase sitting on his bed and sighed heavily. Reality hit him once again like a speeding train—he was still going to school in Colorado.

"Hey, you never know. It could be fun," Kurt said, following Blaine's line of site and realizing what was getting his boyfriend down immediately.

"There's a school uniform, there's no way it can be fun. It involves a blazer and a tie," Blaine replied, rolling his eyes.

"Don't worry," Kurt said, putting his hand on Blaine's shoulder. "You still have the weekends to wear your ill-fashioned ripped black clothing."

Blaine clutched at his heart as if he had been wounded.

"Is everything all right in here?" Elizabeth asked from the doorway. "We heard yelling."

"Yeah," Blaine replied, grabbing a hold of Kurt's hand. "Everything is fine."

"Good," Elizabeth replied. "Dinner is in an hour. I'll call Carole and tell them all to come over and eat here."

With that said she turned and walked off, leaving the boys on their own once more.

"We do still need to talk though," Kurt said, gesturing for them to head over and sit on the bed. "I'm sorry that I betrayed your trust and went to your Uncle. Well, I'm not sorry that I did it because he needed to know. I should have talked to you and given you another chance to do it before I did though. I'm also sorry about what I said about Hunter. I know he is your best friend and I shouldn't have said those things about him."

Blaine sat there in silence for a moment, pondering Kurt's words. "I know that Hunter can sometimes be a bad influence on me…well, to be fair, we can both be a bad influence on each other. We've just been through so much together and had to have each other's backs. I mean in some ways we thought the things his dad were having us do were perfectly okay. We loved being the 'rebels' together. We were going to do what we wanted, fuck society."

Blaine paused, figuring out what he wanted to say next. Kurt sat in silence, knowing it was important for Blaine to say all of this. To acknowledge things the way they really were.

"I mean I guess I knew somewhere in the back of my mind that I could get caught that I would be in danger of going to jail," Blaine continued. "I just thought that I was invincible, though. I thought they would never catch me. Hunter and I used to stroke each other's egos, say how good the two of us were. Here he was dealing drugs to the sons and daughters of some of the most powerful people in society and I was stealing priceless artwork from right behind their backs. What a pair we made."

Blaine cleared his throat, getting lost in thought for a moment. "And then I got caught and reality knocked me right on my ass. I got dragged to the place I despised the most—the suburbs. I was forced to live under strict rules with a real live Fed breathing down my neck—my own personal version of hell at the time. Of course, the Fed happened to be my Uncle who is a lot cooler than I like to give him credit for sometimes—just don't tell him that. Then I went to school and I met this guy who I likened in my mind to an angel. He somehow turned my world around. He saw the real me, not the cocky bastard that I used to be."

Kurt couldn't help but smile at that.

"I was wrong saying that the only person who really knew me was Hunter," Blaine said softly. "Hunter may know a lot of sides of me, but he doesn't know me in the way you do. He's my partner in crime and my brother. You, you're my best friend and hopefully the love of my life."

Kurt started to have tears in his eyes at that.

"God Blaine," Kurt said, wiping at his eyes. "Could you get any cheesier? You're really tugging at my heart strings here."

Blaine just smiled in reply.

"But as cheesy as that was," Kurt replied. "You're my best friend and the love of my life too."

The rest of the night went far too quickly for Blaine's liking. The next thing he knew he and Kurt were on the front porch saying their goodbyes.

"I will try to skype you every day," Blaine said. "I asked Uncle Peter and he said that I'm still allowed to have my laptop and my cell phone. It will still be monitored by the FBI, of course."

"I don't think we have to worry too much about that," Kurt laughed. "They would get bored quickly of our conversations."

"As an ex-conman, I have to tell you nothing stings more than having nothing private from the FBI in my life," Blaine replied with a shrug. "That's beside the point though, I'm really going to miss you Kurt. I seriously thought life here was going to suck until I met you."

"I'm going to miss you just as much Blaine Devon Anderson," Kurt replied with a smile, pulling Blaine in for a kiss.

"God, I should have never told you my middle name," Blaine replied, rolling his eyes.

That didn't stop Blaine for pulling Kurt in for another kiss.

Their goodbye left Blaine on such a high that stayed with him all the way to the airport, through airport security where he and Hunter had to be specially searched because of their anklets, and through the long plane ride to Colorado.

The next morning they were up bright and early packing Blaine and Hunter's suitcases into the car to head over to Elton Walker School for Boys. Hunter and Blaine were both understandably nervous, unsure of what they were about to walk into.

The school wasn't like how Blaine thought it would be. It was huge, looking more like a sprawling college campus than a school for troubled teen boys. The buildings all looked like old collegiate buildings, all brick with huge arching windows. There was a massive stone wall around the property, but it didn't have barbed wire on the top like Blaine thought it might. The only tell was the security guard positioned at the massive wrought-iron gate, but Blaine thought it could still pass for a normal boarding school.

When they passed through the gates they saw tennis courts, soccer fields, a huge field house, gardens—or what appeared to be gardens but were covered in snow, and a track in the distance.

"Is this really a high school?" Hunter asked what Blaine was thinking.

"Here we are, the administration building," Peter said pulling into a parking space in front of a more modern architecture building. It was a sand color with lots of windows to let natural light in.

They were barely four feet in the door before they were greeted.

"Peter! It's been too long," a tall balding man with black rimmed glasses greeted.

"Justin!" Peter replied, shaking the hand that was presented to him. "It's good to see you."

"So who do we have here?"

"This here is my nephew Blaine," Peter said pointing toward him. "And this is his best friend Hunter. Boys this is Headmaster Steinhardt."

"Welcome to Elton Walker School," Headmaster Steinhardt greeted. "We will make sure to take great care of both of them. Don't worry, we got your memo to separate them."

Blaine had to try very hard to not roll his eyes at that. Honestly, how much trouble did they think the two of them could get into?

"Well let's not waste another moment," Headmaster Steinhardt said jovially, turning around and picking up two packets behind him. "Blaine you are in Weston House and Hunter you are in Walker House. Blaine your dorm is on East Campus and Hunter your dorm is on West Campus."

After a quick tour of the campus, Blaine and Peter went one way with Blaine's luggage and Hunter and Mr. Fulton went another. Weston House ended up being a three story building all the way on the east side of campus. The building had a little room behind it where there were some tables and benches, but right behind that was the huge wall. Blaine trudged his way up the steps, carrying his duffel bag over one shoulder and his guitar case in his left hand. Peter was carrying the suitcase. As soon as they walked in they were greeted by a man who was probably in his early 30s. He had bright blond hair and piercing blue eyes.

"You must be Blaine Anderson," the man greeted. "I'm Anthony Bellman, your Head of House. If you follow me we can head up to your room. You are on the third floor and are rooming with Jeffrey Sterling. He's a fairly new student and is a junior like you. He started in October."

Blaine was only half listening, instead choosing to take in his surroundings. The building was beautiful on the inside. The place was modern and well-furnished. Each large wooden door had the names of the pair of boys that resided in them. When they got to the end of the hall on the third floor he saw a door that had his name and that of Jeff's on the door.

"I'm warning you," Mr. Bellman said as he stopped in front of the door. "Jeff is super excited to have a roommate."

With that said he turned the door handle and opened the door. Blaine made a mental note that there were no locks on the doors here. He supposed it was because they didn't want any illegal activity happening behind locked doors. When he walked in the room he saw a super tall blond with shaggy hair standing by a desk. He was in a bright blue polo and dark wash jeans with green converse on.

"You must be Blaine!" the boy immediately exclaimed. "I'm Jeff! I'm from Los Angeles. I heard you're from New York."

"Er—yeah," Blaine said, not really sure how to reply.

"That's awesome," Jeff replied. "I've always wanted to see New York. Is it as awesome as everyone says it is?"

"I think so," Blaine replied with a shrug.

"Jeff, why don't you help Blaine unpack and Peter and I are going to go chat in my office," Mr. Bellman said.

Jeff immediately walked over to help Blaine unpack.

"Dude! You play guitar?" Jeff asked, looking at the guitar that Blaine put down on the empty bed. "How long have you been playing?"

"I was 11 when I first picked it up," Blaine replied, always happy to discuss music. "Do you play?"

"I play bass," Jeff replied.

The two fell into an easy conversation about music after that. Blaine found that they had several of the same favorite bands and artists. He didn't have the same love for the band McFly that Jeff did, but he could appreciate their music.

"I mean Dougie Poynter is like my idol," Jeff gushed. "My ex-girlfriend used to joke that the only person I was allowed to ditch her for was Dougie."

"If you don't mind my asking…" Blaine began but got cut off.

"You want to know what in the world I did that my parents sent me here?" Jeff asked reading Blaine's mind. "Truancy."

Blaine looked over at Jeff and quirked an eyebrow, inviting him to explain that further.

"I was dating a guy in college and I would skive off and go to the beach with him instead of going to class. My parents found out and went ballistic. Not even three days later, I was here," Jeff explained.

Blaine dropped the shirt that he was holding and stared at Jeff in shock for a couple moments.

"What?" Jeff asked, confusion written all over his face. "Yeah, I've dated guys and girls. Don't tell me you're homophobic. That would be just my luck, I finally get a roommate and he hates me."

"No, not at all. My boyfriend's name is Kurt," Blaine replied, getting back to unpacking as if nothing had happened.

"So what about you?" Jeff asked.

"I got arrested for stealing a piece from the Met," Blaine replied with a sigh. "I was suspected of art forgery and a hell of a lot more, but they only got me on that piece."

"So did you go to juvie?" Jeff asked, intrigued.

"Nope," Blaine replied, reaching down and pulling his pant leg up. "I got this."

"My friend Nick has one of those too," Jeff replied. "That's got to suck man."

"Better than juvie," Blaine said.

By the time they had finished unpacking, Blaine found that he really liked Jeff. He had come to this school expecting that he wasn't going to make friends. He was just trying to bide his time until he got to see Kurt again.

"So we have lunch in twenty minutes in the main hall," Jeff said. "Not everyone is back yet, some students won't be back until late tonight or early tomorrow morning. You'll get to meet Nick, though. After lunch we don't have anything scheduled for the rest of the day. If you wanted we could chill and play guitar and stuff or we can always play Xbox in the common room."

"That sounds great man," Blaine replied.

Peter finally came up about five minutes later, ready to say goodbye to Blaine. Jeff told Blaine that he would meet him outside of the main hall.

"Now I think it goes without saying that I expect you to be on your best behavior here," Peter began. "I will be calling every day to check up on you and see how you're doing, and I mean that in the way of how you are actually doing not checking to see if you've gotten into trouble. I trust you."

Blaine wanted to scoff at that, clearly he didn't trust him all that much if he was sending Blaine here. He understood his Uncle's reasoning, but that didn't mean he'd have to like it.

"I'm really going to miss having you around the house, Blaine," Peter continued. "I'm only doing this because I think it's truly the best for you to get out of New York right now. You always have a home to come home to, though. I don't ever want you to doubt that."

"Thanks, Uncle Peter," Blaine replied, trying not to get choked up at that. It felt good to hear those words.

"Goodbye, Blaine," Peter said, pulling Blaine into a hug. "I will be here to pick you up for spring break before you know it."

After Peter left, Blaine went to meet up with Jeff again. He was really thinking that he won the roommate lottery with that one. He just hoped he wouldn't be Red Bull-hyper all of the time….like at night when he was trying to sleep.

"Blaine, this is my friend Nick!" Jeff said introducing the brunette standing next to him as soon as Blaine walked up. "Nick this is my new roomie and hopefully new best friend! He plays guitar! We like the same bands too! Nick plays drums. Isn't that cool?"

Blaine just stared at Jeff nodding, feeling like he was five cups of coffee behind him.

"I'm going to go grab us a table! Get me my usual, Nick!" Jeff said, running off before anyone could reply to him.

"He's a little much to take at first," Nick said, taking in the bewildered expression on Blaine's face. "He's the most genuine person I've ever met, though. Like seriously I don't know if there is anyone as nice as him."

"I can say he's not what I expected as a roommate in a school like this," Blaine admitted, piling some mashed potatoes on to his plate. "So is it true that we have to pick a sport?""

"Yeah, they think that it teaches teamwork and important skills that will help us mature and grow and some other shit," Nick said with a laugh. "Jeff fought the school though, claiming that it was absolutely ridiculous that they were forcing athletics upon their students when you could learn the exact same lessons from music. He won and now it's an option that you can practice a musical instrument instead."

"So we spend the time that would be used on sports practice just messing around on a musical instrument?" Blaine asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No, it—like everything in this school—is structured. There is an official faculty supervisor and we all have to practice for showcases," Nick explained. "This is the first semester that music is being allowed, but from what I understand the showcases are kind of like a talent show in which everyone competes against each other. Just as with the sports teams, the house that wins gets a bonus of some sort—maybe a later weekend curfew for a month or they buy us all pizzas or something. People seriously get into it with the sports. Even if you don't like sports you root your house on because if they win then everyone wins."

Blaine nodded, seeing how it could easily get very competitive.

"Now I warn you," Nick said turning toward Blaine. "Jeff is already very serious about the first showcase. I know him very well, and he is already scheming on how to get you to join him to play at it. If you don't want to do it, you best tell him soon before he starts plotting. Once he gets something in his mind, he likes to get his way."

With that said Nick turned and carried his two trays over to a table that Blaine could see Jeff and some guy with short dark hair sitting at. Blaine followed over after a moment, sitting down in the empty seat in between Jeff and the boy he didn't know yet.

"Blaine this is Avery. He is the only boy in Walker House that we actually like," Jeff introduced.

Blaine saw Avery roll his eyes at that.

"Ignore Jeff, Walker House isn't that bad. He's just mad that we often beat Weston," Avery said with a friendly smile, sticking out his hand for Blaine to shake. "It's nice to meet you."

"You as well," Blaine said shaking Avery's hand.

Throughout the meal Blaine learned that Avery played the guitar as well, Jeff was trying to recruit not only Blaine but Avery and Nick to play with him as well and in general the school houses didn't like each other. He found the house rivalries to be a bit cliché, but kept that opinion to himself.

"So will you guys join me please?" Jeff begged, looking around the table and giving them all puppy eyes.

"Okay, I'll make you a deal," Avery said, laughing at Jeff's hopeful expression. "Let's jam together and see if we even mesh. Then we can decide if we should play together for the showcase."

Jeff's face lit up like it was Christmas.

"Meet you in the music room in twenty minutes!" Jeff said, immediately standing up and sprinting out of the room.

Blaine couldn't help but laugh. He had to admit, he was happy that this was his biggest problem at the moment—seeing if the four of them meshed musically. He didn't have to worry about people shoving him into lockers because he was dating Kurt or because he had a tracking anklet on his leg. He didn't have to worry about Mr. Clarington. He just had to worry about school…damn…maybe his Uncle was right. Blaine hoped Hunter was settling in as well.

An hour later found the four boys playing in one of the new designated music rooms. It wasn't much. It was clearly just a classroom that they emptied out and placed some instruments in. There was also an impressive collection of sheet music along the shelves on the wall. Other than that, the room just had some chairs scattered throughout.

"Do you mind if I record this?" Jeff asked, setting his phone up against one of the chalkboards.

No one protested, so Jeff shrugged and hit play. They started to play a song that they had been messing around with for the last hour.

 _Where are you?_

 _And I'm so sorry,_

 _I cannot sleep, I cannot dream tonight,_

 _I need somebody and always_

 _This sick strange darkness,_

 _Comes creeping on so haunting every time…_

 **Hope you enjoyed this chapter. The song at the end is 'I Miss You' by Blink-182. Also before anyone asks, no my intention is not to have a boarding school story like Dalton by CP Coulter either. Just read on and see!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry this took much more time than I would have liked for me to update. There have just been some crazy things happening in my personal life. Hope things are going well for all of my readers and thank you so much to those of you that are sticking with me. Here is the next chapter for you!**

Chapter 2

Blaine wasn't one that normally got nervous on the first day of school. He usually didn't care enough about anything in school but his best friend Hunter, so what difference did it make. His school in New York City hadn't cared if he showed up or not, so he skipped school more times than he could count. His school in Westchester, New York was a lot different than his one in the city. McKinley High School had cared if he showed up, but wasn't challenging. Blaine was bored in a lot of his classes and was bored with several of his ignorant classmates. He could already tell that Elton Walker School for Boys wasn't going to be that way, though. He was already informed that he would have to meet with his Head of House on a weekly basis to discuss how he was doing in all of his classes and adjusting to the school. His teachers may not take attendance in every class, but the student to teacher ratio was small enough that they would all know if he wasn't there.

"Dude, don't worry," Jeff said the morning of the first day of the semester. He was messing with his hair in the mirror, already dressed in his uniform. His tie was slightly crooked, and his top button was unbuttoned. Blaine could tell that he was trying to go with a slightly rumpled look. Instead of making his hair neater, he was making it look even more messy and sleep tousled. "You'll have me with you all day!"

Blaine laughed, shaking off his nerves and straightening his tie. He figu6red if the work was really that tough he could definitely ask Jeff for help. The kid was clearly more than eager to help anyone that he possibly could.

Blaine, Avery, Nick and Jeff all ate a quick breakfast together in the dining hall before heading off to their classes. Classes were split by house, with a couple houses having class together at a time. The first class that Blaine and Jeff had was U.S. History with Carlisle House.

"Good Morning Mr. Chapman," Jeff said, walking up to the teacher as soon as they entered the classroom.

Blaine watched in confusion as Jeff took a slip of paper from Mr. Chapman before walking to the back of the classroom. Blaine followed behind and sat next to Jeff in the back row.

"I have to get this signed by Mr. Chapman after class to prove that I've been here for the whole class," Jeff explained before Blaine could even ask. "I do this with all my teachers and then have to hand all of the slips to our Head of House at study hall today. They do this for all students that were sent here for truancy. It's annoying, but effective I suppose."

Blaine just nodded along, overwhelmed by the whole new situation.

"So I think we really killed that cover yesterday," Jeff said, switching topics abruptly. "We should work today on another song. Should we stick to the same band or should we cover something else? I'll ask people in the comments section what they think."

"What?" Blaine asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion. "What comments section?"

"On YouTube," Jeff replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"You put our cover on YouTube?" Blaine asked, trying to keep his voice down.

"Yeah," Jeff shrugged. "I asked if you guys were cool if I filmed the video."

Jeff pulled his phone out of his pocket and messed with it for a few moments before turning it so Blaine could see. Blaine was confused by what he was looking at. It was clearly their video. That wasn't the confusing part. The confusing part was that it had over 4,000 views already.

"How does it have so many views?" Blaine asked.

"Oh I have a little bit of a following on YouTube. I upload some covers and some videos of me just doing crazy shenanigans. It's how I relieve stress," Jeff said, putting his phone back in his pocket.

"I just asked them what cover they want to see us do," Jeff said. "There should be enough of a response by this afternoon that we can pick a song to work on."

Blaine didn't have time to respond to that, since the class officially began. Throughout the day he found classes to be a lot more challenging than they were at McKinley. It was clear that the teachers really did care for the education of their students. The material was harder, but they really took the time to explain it and cared if you had questions.

Blaine never really got a chance to talk with Hunter to see how he was doing. He saw him hanging out with some other guys from his house and thought it seemed like the boy was doing fine. Hunter could make friends anywhere, so Blaine wasn't worried that the boy was lonely.

After the official school day ended it was time for Music/Sport. Blaine headed with Jeff to the music room where they met up with Avery and Nick once more. There were about fifteen boys total that were choosing to do music for their activity. There was clearly a wide variety of instruments. There was everything from guitars and piano to saxophones and violins. Several boys were choosing to do vocal performance over an instrument. Blaine was surprised to see that Hunter was not there, wondering what sport he had chosen instead.

It was pretty clear that most of the boys had chosen how they wanted to compete at the showcase already, be that in groups or solo. Avery, Nick, Jeff and Blaine were the only group that was trying for a 'band' with two guitars, drums and bass.

Mr. Fitzgerald, the faculty supervisor, called for order once the bell rang.

"So thank you all for choosing to take part in this new program," Mr. Fitzgerald began. "Hopefully this will be very successful and we will be able to continue with it in the future. Now I'm sure you are wondering how this is going to work, since obviously you can't all practice in this room at once playing all different songs. That would just be chaos. Now it seems to me like most of you already have an idea of how you want to approach this for the showcase. I'm going to give you five minutes to discuss things though, and then you will write your groups or your solo act on this sheet of paper here. After that is done I will explain how we are going to work this."

Mr. Fitzgerald gestured for the boys to discuss amongst themselves, the classroom erupting into noise immediately.

"So have we decided?" Jeff asked, biting his lip in his anxiousness. "Are we going to compete together?"

"I'm in," Nick immediately replied. "I thought we sounded great together."

"I guess I can work with y'all," Avery said with a smirk.

"Okay so we have a drummer, a bassist, and a guitarist," Jeff said, turning towards Blaine. "Do we have our other guitarist?"

Blaine thought about leaving Jeff in suspense for a while, but couldn't help the grin that spread across his face. "Fine, I'm in too."

Jeff literally jumped up out of his chair and did a little dance.

"This is great!" Jeff exclaimed. "We are so going to win. That freaking boy band from Walker House doesn't stand a chance."

Blaine wasn't entirely sure what Jeff was talking about, but shrugged and went along with it.

"Okay so the comments on the video were all over the place," Jeff said.

Neither Nick nor Avery looked confused by that statement, so obviously Jeff had told them about it at some point.

"There was no answer that was even given twice," Jeff continued. "I think we should collectively come up with different things to cover. We should aim to put a cover up every few days. The commenters on YouTube are very straightforward. If they don't like it, they will tell you. They will be our tester audience."

Blaine thought that was a very interesting way to develop their sound. In some ways it would be up to the guys because they were choosing the covers they were doing. They were originating what they thought their sound could and should be. The commenters on YouTube would just critique it.

"So what should we do for today?" Avery asked.

"I think we should do something different and unexpected," Nick continued. "We don't want to do another Blink song. How about something by Good Charlotte?"

"What about The Used?" Avery suggested.

"Are those really unexpected?" Jeff asked.

"What about Nickelback?" Blaine threw out, mostly joking. He enjoyed Nickelback's music, but knew a lot of people didn't (or claimed they didn't).

Jeff turned and stared at Blaine for a moment, his jaw dropping.

"GENIUS!" Jeff exclaimed.

Blaine raised an eyebrow in confusion, not at all expecting that response.

"No, that is good," Nick added. "It's still a cool sound, and different enough. Who would expect that we would follow up a Blink song with Nickelback?"

"I'm for it," Avery said with a shrug. "My friends back in Texas and I used to blast Nickelback and rock out in my pickup truck."

Before Blaine could say anything else on the subject, Mr. Fitzgerald called for order and asked for one member of each act to come forward and sign up. Jeff took the liberty of doing that for them.

"Okay so the way that this is going to work is we are going to cut into your study hall hours. You are all going to get an assigned time slot to use this room. If it is not your time slot then you will be in study hall. That means that you could have study hall much earlier than usual," Mr. Fitzgerald explained.

Mr. Fitzgerald quickly scanned through the list and started to write times next to the entries.

"So here are your time slots," Mr. Fitzgerald said, turning and posting the sheet on the bulletin board behind him. "Everyone other than Chester Adams and Mark Fillmore please look at your time slot and head to study hall."

Blaine glanced at their time slot and saw that they had the room the last possible time slot. The four boys headed to their assigned study hall rooms and got to work. Blaine actually like having the study time. He got all of his work done quickly and without any distractions. They passed notes to each other every once in a while, but other than that he was really able to focus. An hour into study hall Blaine caught Hunter walking in out of the corner of his eye.

Hunter nodded to the guy that he was with and then walked over and sat down across from Blaine.

"I thought for sure you would have taken music," Blaine whispered, watching Hunter start to unpack his bag.

"No, a bunch of guys in my house persuaded me to do archery with them," Hunter shrugged, whispering in reply.

"So how are you liking it here?" Blaine wrote on a piece of paper and slid it to Hunter.

"It's not terrible," Hunter wrote back. "I mean most of the guys in my house are cool. So who are your friends?"

"The blond one is my roommate Jeff. The one to your left is Nick and the one next to me is Avery," Blaine answered.

"I know Avery, he's in my house. He's kind of the traitor of the house because he mostly just hangs out with people from different houses," Hunter wrote back.

Blaine couldn't help but roll his eyes at that. Of course this school would have such strong house rivalries.

Next thing Blaine knew Jeff was tugging at his sleeve, gesturing that it was time to go. Blaine shoved all his books into his backpack and rushed out after the guys. They got to the music room right as the guy before them was heading out. He was the student playing the saxophone.

"Welcome guys!" Mr. Fitzgerald said as they walked in. "I admit I'm quite excited to see what you guys pull together for the show. Do you know what song you want to do?"

"No, we are actually going to try out several different songs just to see how things go. We have three weeks until the first showcase, so I think we have a little time to mess around," Jeff explained.

"Sounds good," Mr. Fitzgerald. "You guys just get to it. I'm here for any advice if you need it. For now I'm just going to observe."

The boys messed around with some Nickelback songs for a little bit, finally landing on the song How You Remind Me.

 _It's not like you to say sorry_

 _I was waiting on a different story_

 _This time I'm mistaken_

 _For handing you a heart worth breaking…_

Blaine thought the session went great. They weren't amazing by any stretch of the imagination, but he thought they gelled pretty well together. He had a couple moments before dinner, so he decided to call Kurt so that he could talk about how excited he was.

"It felt awesome," Blaine gushed. "These guys love music in the same ways that I do. Like it's incredible."

"That's great, Blaine," Kurt replied, so happy to hear that his boyfriend was happy. "I have some exciting news too"

"Oh yeah," Blaine asked, sitting down on his bed and crossing his legs.

"I auditioned for Sound of Music just at the local community theater," Kurt began. "I just got the call after school! I got it! I'm going to play Friedrich."

"That's awesome, Kurt!" Blaine exclaimed.

"Yeah, the director is a guy who is a freshman in college," Kurt continued. "His name is Adam. I don't really know much about him yet other than he is from England. He cast me though, so that means he is automatically awesome in my book."

"Blaine! Dinner," Jeff said, peeking his head into the room.

"Gotta go, Kurt," Blaine said. "I will talk to you soon though! Congrats again."

Blaine hung up the phone feeling like things could only go up from here.

 **How You Remind Me- Nickelback is the song that is used in this chapter. Hope you all enjoyed and have noticed some of the drama that is stirring! Love you all so much and thanks for reading.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry it has taken a ridiculously long time to update. I lost inspiration for the story for a little bit. I hope you guys enjoy this update and I'm excited to write more again!**

Chapter 3

Peter paced around his office, frustrated over the botched meeting. Someone must have tipped off Mr. Clarington that the FBI was going to show instead of his son. The man never showed. He was off their radar once more. Peter sighed and ran his hand through his hair, before plopping down on his office chair in defeat. He had to admit he didn't know the next move to take.

"Boss, I'm sure that we can get this guy eventually," Diana said from where she sat across the desk from Peter. "He's cocky. That's going to be his downfall."

"He knows his own son betrayed him, that's going to make him a hell of a lot more cautious," Jones suggested from where he sat next to Diana.

"Although I can't be too sure that Hunter wasn't the one that tipped him off in the first place," Peter admitted. "I don't know how he did it, but he could have."

"I thought you said Hunter was fully content to help you find him after he found out Mr. Clarington wanted Blaine to kill someone," Jones said.

"That could have been in the moment. After thinking over it for some time, I'm sure Hunter still feels loyal to his father," Peter said, sighing once more.

"Could you call Blaine and talk to him? Maybe he knows something or he could talk with Hunter and get it out of him," Diana suggested.

"No, I don't want to involve Blaine. The whole point of sending them off to school in Colorado was so that they could have a normal teenage life," Peter explained. "I didn't want them worried about this twisted adult business that Mr. Clarington dragged them into."

"So what's our next move?" Diana asked.

"We go back to the drawing board," Peter replied.

/

Out in Colorado Blaine was having way more fun than he thought he could possibly have at boarding school. The past couple weeks there had been like no other. He was really getting close with Nick, Jeff and Avery. They were quickly becoming his best friends. Anytime they weren't in class or in study hall, they were either discussing music, playing music, or working on their YouTube channel. Blaine hardly saw Hunter anymore, but was so busy that he didn't notice all that much. They both had their own separate lives at school.

"Everything is wrong!" Jeff said walking into their shared dorm room.

Blaine looked up from _A Tale of Two Cities,_ the book he was reading for his English class, in confusion.

"What's wrong?" Blaine asked, dog-earring the page since he could tell this wasn't going to be a quick conversation.

"The song, the sound, the look!" Jeff exclaimed, pacing back in forth in the little space that the dorm room provided.

"The song is great, the sound is great, the look is great," Blaine said, standing up and walking over to Jeff.

Blaine placed both his hands of Jeff's shoulders to stop his pacing.

"I just feel like we need to do something different," Jeff replied, taking a deep breath to try to calm himself. "I feel like we need something deeper, something unexpected. Covering a McFly song is exactly what everyone at this school would expect coming from me, as well as our fans on YouTube."

" _Falling in Love_ is a great song though," Blaine defended. "And I don't think it's exactly what everyone at this school would expect because…er—well, a lot of people here in America don't actually know who McFly is…"

"I know that," Jeff said, turning and sitting down on his bed. He placed his head in his hands and sighed deeply. "I just know that something is telling me to do a different song."

"Jeff, the showcase is two days away," Blaine said, sitting down next to Jeff on the bed. "That doesn't give us a whole lot of time to pick another song. If this is what you really feel though, we need to have an emergency band meeting."

That was what Jeff really felt, so ten minutes later found the four boys in the music room brainstorming what they could possibly do. All three of them had faith in Jeff, so if Jeff was feeling like they needed to switch up their song, then they were switching up their song.

It took about an hour before they finally came up with the new song. Blaine had to admit when it was all said and done, Jeff was right. This song was perfect. It was just what they needed to present themselves at the first Showcase. The next two days were some of the most stressful of Blaine's life. They were getting very little sleep and practicing in every single second that they possibly could. It had to be perfect. Blaine learned so much about the other three boys that you could only learn in those types of situations. There were some squabbles between them, but in the end it would hopefully all be worth it.

Before he knew it, the Showcase was upon them. Blaine sneaked a peek out of the doors and saw that the auditorium was packed. He had no idea that it would be this big of a deal. The whole school showed up for the sports events, but Blaine thought that it would be a select few that would show for the Showcase. It seemed that the school cared about their houses winning and would show up to anything to support their teams to do just that.

"Okay, I'm officially nervous," Jeff said from behind Blaine, peeking out into the auditorium as well.

Blaine just nodded his head in agreement. He was mentally giving himself a pep talk about how he had pulled off huge heists without getting caught. Surely he could get on stage and perform in front of the school. Hell, their covers were on YouTube getting thousands of hits at the moment. That was way more people than he was about to play in front of.

"Band meeting in our dressing room," Blaine said, swallowing hard and shutting the door.

Jeff nodded and the two headed to the classroom that they were given to use as their dressing room for the show. They found Avery hanging out by the water fountain texting on his phone on the way. They grabbed him and dragged him into the dressing room where Nick was chilling out in the teacher's plush chair listening to his iPod.

"What's going on guys?" Avery asked, looking in confusion between Jeff and Blaine.

"We have a full house and made the mistake of looking out at it," Jeff said, looking slightly green.

"We've got this guys!" Nick said, pulling his head phones out of his ears.

Nick stood up and pulled Jeff into a tight hug. The other boy visibly relaxed at the touch.

"How about we listen to some music while we wait to go on. That way we can't hear what the other boys perform," Avery suggested, knowing they had awhile until they went on.

The order was the same as their rehearsal schedule, meaning that the boys went last. What was really getting them nervous was who was going right before them—four guys from Walker House. They were a clear favorite coming into the competition, with all of the school talking about them. They were going for a very different approach then Blaine and his friends. They were singing pop music, acapella. Blaine knew they were good, but he was hoping that with the song they chose and the heart they were able to put in it, that they would be better.

The moment finally came where they were to take the stage. The four boys quickly huddled and gave each other a quick confidence boost before heading out on to the stage. Blaine stood in the center of the stage, his guitar slung over his shoulder. The lights were shining brightly into his eyes, so he could only see a couple rows of students. Blaine took a deep breath, and an immense sense of warmth came over him. He felt at home.

They started their song, passionately playing and singing the lyrics. They held a lot of meaning to Blaine, so it wasn't hard for him to emotionally connect with the song.

 _Who will fix me now? Dive in when I'm down?_

 _Save me from myself, don't let me drown,_

 _Who will make me fight? Drag me out alive,_

 _Save me from myself, don't let me drown._

When the song ended, there was a moment of silence that seemed to last forever to Blaine. Then when he looked up there was thunderous applause and a standing ovation from the crowd. Blaine felt his heart pounding in his chest. They did it. It didn't even matter that much to him if they won the showcase, they performed in front of their entire school and it felt incredible. In that moment he knew. This was what he wanted to spend the rest of his life doing.

They ended up coming in second in the showcase behind the Walker House group, but Blaine was confident that they would get them next time. They still just needed a little bit more time to mesh as a group to even further reach their potential.

Blaine was headed back to his dorm when he heard his name being called.

"Blaine!" Hunter yelled, running up behind Blaine. "Hey great song man. You guys did great. I think you should've won."

"Thanks," Blaine replied. "You didn't chase after me to tell me that though. There is that look in your eye that you are up to something."

Hunter pulled Blaine into a little alcove that was behind the library. It was surrounded by bushes, so it granted them the privacy that Hunter wanted.

"You always did know me so well," Hunter joked. "My father thinks that he can break us out of here."

"What?" Blaine stuttered out, plopping down on the bench in his confusion. "How do you know what your father thinks right now?"

"I have this," Hunter said, pulling a cell phone from his back pocket. "He snuck it to me the night before we left for Colorado. He was watching my place and deducted that the other phones he gave us had been taken."

"I thought you didn't want to work for him anymore, Hunter!" Blaine said, his arms flailing as he spoke.

"Don't tell me your actually happy here, Blaine!" Hunter replied, shock covering his features. "It's strict and restrictive. It doesn't give us the freedom to be who we really are."

"Oh yeah? And who is that exactly, Hunter?" Blaine asked, crossing his arms over his chest. "If your answer is criminals I'm going to be very upset, because I like to think that I'm so much more than that."

Hunter sighed.

"Criminals isn't the right word to use, Blaine," Hunter replied. "We are guys who like to color outside the lines. We like to make our own destiny, rather than follow the rules."

"What if this isn't the destiny that I want anymore?" Blaine asked. "If I run with you, do you realize all the things that I will lose? I have finally started to find a family with my aunt and uncle and my brother. Then there is Kurt, the love of my life. Why would you ask me to leave him?"

Hunter sat down on the bench next to Blaine, and put his head into his hands.

"I'm dying here, Blaine," Hunter said softly. "They've taken away all of the things that make me who I am. They've slapped an anklet around my ankle and forced me to color within their lines."

"It may be hard right now, but it's going to get easier," Blaine said, putting his hand of Hunter's shoulder. "My Uncle is allowing us to have a future. Your father is trying to take that away. He is trying to tempt you to be his puppet once more."

"I resent that," Hunter replied, sitting up quickly. "I was not his puppet."

"You were as much his puppet as I was," Blaine replied. "We did what he told us—made friends with the people he asked us to, stole the things he asked us to, and even covered for him when he asked us to," Blaine reminded. "We weren't free that way."

"Well we sure as hell aren't free now," Hunter replied.

"Really? Because to be honest, I've never felt freer in my whole life," Blaine said with a small smile gracing his lips. "I have a boyfriend that I love, I have friends that really support me, and I have a future that doesn't involve a jail cell. I think I'm quite content."

"That's great for you," Hunter snapped. "I don't have any of those things."

Hunter got up and walked off quickly. Blaine called and chased after him, but the boy was taller and much quicker and got away. Blaine wasn't able to go into other dorms, so he was forced to let it go for the moment. He would have to keep an eye on Hunter. In the meantime he had a phone call to make.

"Uncle Peter," Blaine said, before the man could speak. "Now I need to know that what I'm telling you won't get this person into serious trouble."

"What did Hunter do?" Peter asked with a sigh.

"His dad passed him a cell phone the night before we left for Colorado and he's been in contact with him ever since," Blaine explained. "Hunter said that Mr. Clarington thinks he can figure out how to break us out of here. I thought you should know since that might mean that he's in Colorado rather than New York."

"You aren't tempted are you?" Peter asked.

"Why would I tell you about it if I was?" Blaine reasoned.

Peter sagged in relief in his office chair.

"Thank you for telling me," Peter said sincerely. "It looks like I'm going to be out in Colorado sooner than I thought I'd be. In the meantime, I'm going to have to speak to the headmaster about getting that cell phone and keeping a closer eye on Hunter."

"I don't think that's such a great idea, Uncle Peter," Blaine said, hoping his Uncle wasn't going to get mad. "He's feeling trapped right now, which is just fueling his desire to run."

"He doesn't feel like he's fitting in there?" Peter asked.

"No, he hasn't quite made and bonded with friends like I have," Blaine replied. "I mean he's made friends, but he isn't as close with them. He's still cautious."

"Well it sounds like he needs you," Peter replied.

"If he lets me in again that is," Blaine said.

"It doesn't hurt to try," Peter said, sounding annoyingly optimistic even to his own ears. "I got to run, but I'm so glad that you called. I will talk with you soon."

They hung up the phone, and Blaine admittedly felt a lot better about the situation. He was so glad that he had his Uncle to turn to. He used to feel that way about Mr. Clarington, but it was obvious now to Blaine that the man wasn't a good influence.

"I can't believe we got beat by freaking Walker House!" Jeff ranted as he walked into their dorm room. "They are all so stupid!"

"Avery is in Walker House," Blaine reminded, unable to keep a smile off of his face at how peeved Jeff looked.

"All but Avery," Jeff replied.

"My friend Hunter is in Walker House," Blaine said, but then added. "Although, right now he surely isn't acting the smartest."

"See! Point proven!" Jeff exclaimed.

Blaine thought Jeff seemed more like a six year old at times, than a sixteen year old, but he digressed.

"We will just show them up at the next showcase," Blaine said with a shrug. "In fact, let me talk to Kurt and see what he has to say on the subject. He might come up with some awesome song choices!"

Blaine hit Kurt's number on his contacts. The phone rang and rang and rang, but Kurt never picked up. Blaine figured Kurt was at practice for Sound of Music, so he left a message asking for Kurt to call him later. Blaine knew Kurt was super excited about his role in the musical, and couldn't stop talking about what an incredible director Adam was. Blaine wished that he could be there to see the performance. He was sure that Kurt would shine.

/

Back in New York, Peter called all of his agents into the conference room to share with them the new development on their case.

"Blaine said that Clarington was talking with his son about breaking him out of Elton Walker," Peter explained. "That means the man is probably in Colorado. We need to search for any possible sighting of him in the Littleton area."

"Why would the man go to the one place he knows you have an eye on?" Diana asked.

"Blaine and Hunter were how the man did his work," Peter theorized. "They are how he made all of his money. Without them, he is desperate. There is a reason that he approached Blaine and Hunter in the December, even though he knew they were both under careful scrutiny. It's got to be the same reason now. He's in trouble of some sort, and the key to getting out of it is through the two of them."

"So he can't do whatever needs to be done?" Jones asked.

"No, I'm not sure the man is talented enough," Peter explained. "I think that he is a passable criminal, but he isn't as skilled as either Hunter or Blaine. He needs them to do the dirty work, because whatever it is lies outside of his skill set."

"So what's the plan?" Diana asked. "Are we going out to Colorado?"

"I'm booking the flights for tomorrow," Peter said. "In the meantime we are going to do as much research as we can and see if we can get any more leads.

His team nodded and all scattered about to get to work.

"You take this really personally don't you?" Diana asked. "I haven't seen you this worked up in a long time."

"He shouldn't be messing with the impressionable minds of youth," Peter replied, anger tainting each one of his words. "Especially not the ones that I care about and am set on keeping on the straight and narrow."

/

Blaine answered his phone on the third ring, excited to see that it was Kurt calling.

"Hey Kurt!" Blaine answered. "I'm so happy that you called back."

"Blaine! It's good to hear your voice," Kurt replied. "I'm sorry to say that I can't talk long. I have to get back to rehearsal."

"Can you call me later tonight?" Blaine asked.

"I'm actually going out to dinner with Adam to go over my lines and so that he can give me some notes on my performance," Kurt replied.

Blaine's face fell at that. He couldn't help the feeling of jealously that sprouted in his gut.

"Oh," Blaine said. "I guess we can talk tomorrow then."

"Sorry!" Kurt said. "Can't wait to talk tomorrow! I have so much to talk to you about with this rehearsal! Got to go! Love you."

"I can't wait to tell you about the showcase either," Blaine replied.

He waited a few moments and then realized that he wasn't getting a response because Kurt had already hung up the phone. Blaine sighed and put his phone back into his pocket.

 **The song used in this chapter is Drown by Bring Me The Horizon.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Thank you to anyone that is still reading this story even though I sometimes take very long breaks in between updating. I hope you are still enjoying the story and I would love to hear your feedback.**

Chapter 4

The next morning Blaine could hardly pay attention in his classes. He was worried that Hunter was going to do something stupid. It was walking between his math and history class that Blaine saw Hunter walking toward his dorm, even though Blaine knew the boy was supposed to be in class.

"I'll see you in there," Blaine muttered to Jeff. "I have something to take care of."

"Okay," Jeff said confused, but decided to keep his mouth shut upon seeing Blaine's serious expression.

Blaine ran after Hunter, catching up with him as he walked by the enormous gymnasium.

"Hunter, where are you going?" Blaine asked, grabbing on to his friend's arm and pulling him to a stop.

"What the hell are you doing?" Hunter asked after his temporary shock subsided. "Leave me alone."

"Why are you skipping class?" Blaine asked, letting go of Hunter's arm and folding his own across his chest.

"You know, I think you are becoming more and more like your Uncle each and every day," Hunter shot back.

"I'm not your enemy," Blaine argued, running his hands through his hair in his frustration.

"Well you're certainly not acting like my friend right now," Hunter replied. "My friend would support me and see that I'm suffocating here."

"I do support you," Blaine said, trying to keep the hurt from Hunter's words off of his face. "But going back to your father isn't the solution. There has to be another way."

"I'm not like you, Blaine," Hunter said after a couple moments of silence. "I'm not making friends here the way you do. These people are of no interest to me."

"You aren't trying," Blaine shot back in reply.

"How would you even know?" Hunter said, folding his arms across his chest. "You are too busy running around with your little boy band."

Blaine had about reached his limit and was ready to tell Hunter exactly what he felt about how his friend was acting, but unfortunately that was the moment that Headmaster Steinhardt walked up behind them.

"Well what do we have here?" Headmaster Steinhardt asked. "Shouldn't the two of you be in class?"

Both Blaine and Hunter stared at the ground in front of them, knowing that Headmaster Steinhardt was well aware of the answer.

"Peter warned me that the two of you tended to get each other in trouble, but I had hoped that he was overreacting," Steinhardt continued. "I see I may have misjudged the situation."

Blaine had to grit his teeth to hold back from snapping that it was only skipping class, not like the two were out robbing a museum.

"Sorry sir, I just wanted to talk with Hunter and I lost track of the time," Blaine said in reply. "It won't happen again, and we will head straight to class."

"That won't be necessary," Headmaster Steinhardt replied, confusing both boys. "I was actually coming to pull the both of you out of class to speak with you."

"What for?" Hunter asked.

"Let's head to my office and we will discuss that," Steinhardt said, gesturing toward the main hall where his office was located.

Steinhardt led the way and the two boys followed. Blaine almost sighed in relief that they weren't in trouble for missing class, but then the Headmaster spoke again.

"For being over fifteen minutes late for class," Steinhardt said. "Even though I have some doubts as to whether you ever intended to make it there, you will serve detention this afternoon."

Blaine held back a groan at that.

"Yes, sir," both Blaine and Hunter replied with a sigh.

The three of them walked the rest of the way to the office in silence. It was fairly short walk, since the office was located next to the gym with just a large pathway in between the two. Once inside they were greeted by a surprise sitting in the Headmaster's office.

"Uncle Peter!" Blaine exclaimed. "I didn't think you'd make it out here this quick."

"The bureau wanted me to fly out here this morning," Peter replied, pulling his nephew into a hug.

Hunter looked back and forth between the two for a moment, before instantly realizing what was happening.

"You fucking told him!" Hunter exclaimed. "I thought I knew you. We used to have each other's back, and now you run to your uncle the moment things don't go the way you want them to."

"Hunter I told you I don't want you to end up in juvie," Blaine replied. "You may be very unhappy here, but I would much rather you unhappy here than unhappy behind bars."

"It's my life," Hunter snapped in reply. "It's my choice."

"You're 16," Headmaster Steinhardt butted into the conversation. "It's still the place of adults to help you out."

"I don't want your help," Hunter replied.

"You may not want it, but you're going to get it and hopefully later in life you realize that it was all worth it in the end," Peter replied, turning to face Hunter. "Now please have a seat."

Hunter fought the urge to turn around and run right out the front doors. He wouldn't get anywhere, though. He would have to stay on campus. Even if he could get off campus, his stupid tracking anklet would tell them exactly where to find him. After a few moments he obeyed, sitting down in the seat closest to the wall. Headmaster Steinhardt sat on his side of the desk, and his three guest sat on the other. Hunter closest to the wall, Blaine in the middle and Peter on the end.

"So first things first," Peter said. "I need the cell phone that your father gave you."

Hunter looked like he was going to refuse, but then clearly thought better of it and handed it over to Peter.

"This feels like an odd sense of déjà vu," Hunter couldn't help but quip.

"Do you know if your father is in the area?" Peter asked, ignoring what Hunter had said in favor of hopefully getting answers.

"I honestly don't know," Hunter replied. "He was light on the details in case something like this happened. He said that he wouldn't tell me everything until the plan was fully in place and about to occur."

"Did it sound like it was going to occur soon?" Peter asked.

"I think he planned it within the next month," Hunter replied. "He was indicating that he had something time sensitive that he needed me to take care of."

Peter nodded at that and got lost in his thoughts for a few moments.

"And you've had absolutely no contact?" Peter asked, turning his attention toward his nephew now.

"No, I've already told you I haven't," Blaine replied. "I'm done with Mr. Clarington."

"Blaine has been doing very well here," Headmaster Steinhardt came to Blaine's defense. "He seems to have made himself a good group of friends and together they almost won the Showcase."

"Showcase?" Peter asked, quirking his right eyebrow. "Blaine hasn't mentioned anything about a Showcase."

"I didn't think it was that important," Blaine shrugged. "Some friends and I put together a little makeshift band and played a song at the showcase. It's what I chose to do instead of picking a sport for my required extracurricular activity."

"Makeshift band," Hunter scoffed. "I meant it when I said you guys were good and should have won."

Blaine blushed at that, joyed by the praise from Hunter even though he was currently very frustrated with his best friend.

"They were very good," Steinhardt agreed. "They work well together, and I think it's really helped to change the focus of the four boys from what they use to enjoy. Other than today, Blaine hasn't had a hiccup."

"Other than today?" Peter asked, his tone turning serious.

Of course that would be what Peter caught on to instead of all the other high praise that the headmaster had given him.

"I was late for class and got detention with Hunter," Blaine admitted.

"You skipped class?" Peter asked.

"I did plan on going," Blaine explained. "I just saw Hunter skipping and went to confront him about it."

Peter sighed and nodded. He wanted to tell Blaine that he should have left it up to the faculty to deal with Hunter, but he knew just yesterday he told Blaine he needed to look after his friend. He couldn't really fault him for this one.

"Okay well I think you can head back to class now," Peter said.

Both Hunter and Blaine moved to stand.

"Just Blaine," Peter added, his voice reaching his stern full-FBI mode. "I still need to talk further with you Hunter."

Blaine felt bad for Hunter. He knew firsthand how awful it was to deal with his Uncle in his interrogation mode. The man would not stop digging until he got all the answers that he wanted. Blaine was just very happy that it wasn't himself in that position right now. If he could make it without hearing another Special Agent Peter Burke lecture he would die a happy man.

"I will see you later, Blaine," Peter added. "I'm going to take you out to dinner tonight to catch up."

Blaine nodded and then quickly headed out of the Headmaster's office. It was now time for his next period class and so he hurriedly made his way there, walking through the door just in time.

"Where were you man?" Jeff asked when Blaine sat down next to him. "You are going to get in so much trouble for skipping class."

"Don't worry," Blaine replied. "I already got detention tonight."

"Just one night?" Jeff asked aghast. "Nick skipped once and they gave him three days!"

"I was only technically late," Blaine replied, confusing Jeff further. "The Headmaster came by and got Hunter and I and we talked in the office with my Uncle who is here."

Jeff didn't have a chance to quiz Blaine any further on what had happened, since at that moment the class began. Blaine didn't see Hunter for the rest of the day, not having any more classes with him. The next time that Blaine saw Hunter was decidedly extremely unexpected.

Jeff, Blaine, Nick and Avery walked into the music classroom. Since the Showcase had been the day before they were all meeting together for Mr. Fitzgerald to discuss their performances and reflect on how they thought it went. This was the time for any changes in instrument, grouping, or new members etc. Blaine thought they might gain a new member of two, but was floored when he walked in to see Hunter sitting on one of the chairs. He immediately headed over to sit next to him.

"What are you doing here?" Blaine asked before he even fully sat down.

"Hey, thanks. Nice to see you too, traitor," Hunter replied rolling his eyes. "Because of you, your uncle and the Headmaster thought that I might flourish in the music program like you did. They forced me to switch from archery with my friends to this."

"You said you weren't making friends," Blaine pointed out.

"Eh—acquaintances, same difference," Hunter said with a shrug.

Blaine wanted to argue that there was a world of difference between the two, but chose to pick his battles.

"The jokes on your uncle, though," Hunter said with a humorless laugh. "I'm pretty sure I'm the only new member of this program, so it looks like I will be going solo."

"We need a keyboardist," Jeff said, walking from the seat he had taken behind them. Avery had snatched a seat to his left and Nick to his right. "I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but I couldn't help but overhear. Do you play?"

"Yes he does!" Blaine exclaimed before Hunter could even get the words out.

"Perfect!" Jeff exclaimed clapping his hand together like an over-excited child.

Hunter held back a groan at having to deal with someone with so much enthusiasm. He didn't say no though, because the look on Blaine's face was too hopeful to crush. If Blaine really wanted him on the straight and narrow this badly, then maybe he'd try again for his sake…for now.

 **Well there you have it, Hunter's on the straight and narrow...or is he?**


	5. Chapter 5

**Here is the next chapter for you. It took forever because I just couldn't figure out how I wanted this chapter to go. I knew the ending of the chapter and I knew the song they sang at the showcase, I just rewrote how they all connected in many different ways. Let me know what you think.**

 **Chapter 5**

Peter came to pick Blaine up after his detention, so that the two of them could have a dinner together off campus. After signing Blaine out, they headed to an Italian restaurant a couple blocks over that the Headmaster had recommended to Peter.

Blaine noticed that he got a couple stares as he walked in. He was wearing his school uniform, since he was too lazy to change out of it. The school required that they wear it to all classes, meals and school activities during the week so most of the students never bothered to change out of it on weekdays. Based on the looks he was getting, many of the occupants knew what type of school Elton Walker was and were making judgments on Blaine based on it.

"So how is school going so far?" Peter asked after they ordered their meals.

"It's good," Blaine replied, selecting a piece of bread from the basket in the middle of the table. "It's certainly a lot more challenging than McKinley ever was."

"You aren't still mad at me for sending you here, are you?" Peter asked.

"I miss Kurt like crazy," Blaine said with a sigh.

"That wasn't what I asked you, though," Peter said.

"I'm not mad," Blaine finally admitted after a couple moments of silence. "I…er—I get why you did it."

"So tell me about these guys that you are in a band with," Peter prompted.

The rest of the dinner was spent discussing his band mates and all of the different songs they sang or were planning to sing. Peter was beyond excited to see Blaine this passionate about something that was legal.

"I just wish that Hunter found something that he could be this excited over," Peter said. "Headmaster Steinhardt and I felt it best to place him in the music program as well. Hopefully he will get as much out of it as you are."

Blaine thought of his next words very carefully, wanting to be immensely clear as to what point he was trying to get across.

"Hunter and I are like brothers," Blaine began. "We have this bond between us because of the way that we've lived our lives over the past couple years. There is something in us that pulls us together and has us bound like brothers. But Uncle Peter, we are brothers but not the same person."

"What do you mean?"

"We don't have the same motivations, we don't have the exact same dreams and hopes for our lives," Blaine explained. "I realized that I have to change the way that I've been living my life or I will lose Kurt and I will lose this good thing that I have going for me with music."

"And Hunter doesn't have a Kurt or the strong passion for music to keep him on the straight and narrow," Peter deduced. "Which is why you think he is rebelling against his boundaries so hard."

Blaine considered his words once more before speaking.

"I appreciate what you've done for us. I am immensely grateful that I'm not in juvie right now, where you had every right to send me without a second thought," Blaine said, playing with the salt and pepper shakers rather than looking into his Uncle's eyes. "I just don't think you realize how much these anklets can mess with your head sometimes."

Peter placed his hand on Blaine's to get him to stop playing with the shakers and to look him in the eye.

"Explain it to me," Peter said softly, genuinely wanting to know what Blaine was thinking.

"It's like being free without actually being free," Blaine explained. "It's like giving a kid an ice cream cone and telling him that he's only allowed to hold it. It can make you feel like you are caged. It goes against our instincts, because Hunter and I have been taught that when you are trapped in a situation you need to try every way possible to get out of it."

Peter nodded his understanding.

"So how do your propose we approach Hunter?" Peter asked.

"I wouldn't interfere much," Blaine said. "Let him be in music because he wants to be in music, not because that's what you think he needs. He cares about me, and that's the only thing keeping him on the straight and narrow right now. He knows it would upset me if he went off the rails. I think you should let him know that he should try this music thing until the next showcase and that if he doesn't like it at that point that he is free to make his own choice about where he wants to be. The more choices you give Hunter, the more likely he is to stay."

Peter couldn't believe how much Blaine had matured in the little over a month and a half since he had dropped him off. It was startling to see the difference.

"I understand and that makes a lot of sense. I will let him know that he can have a say in the matter," Peter said. "In the meantime, you need to make sure to be there for him."

"He's in our band now, so that shouldn't be too hard," Blaine said with a laugh. "Jeff is psycho about our rehearsal schedule. Especially now that we lost the first showcase to Walker house he is going to be even worse."

"Are you sure these guys are all good influences for Hunter or even for yourself?" Peter asked. "You have a truant, a car thief and a vandal."

Blaine just stared at his uncle in disbelief for a moment.

"How do you even know that?" Blaine asked.

"It's my job to know who you are hanging out with, Blaine," Peter replied.

Blaine shook his head in annoyance.

"Did you know that the only one I actually knew was that Jeff was here for truancy," Blaine replied, a definite edge to his voice. "I never even bothered to ask why Nick or Avery were sent here. I thought you were different. I thought you saw people for more than just their crimes. I thought you saw them as the person first, but now I can see that I was wrong."

"Blaine, I do. I just worry about you is all," Peter replied.

"Who did you think I would be making friends with when you sent me to a boarding school for troubled teen boys?" Blaine asked. "To be fair, Jeff's parents could be concerned that he's made friends with an art thief and forger."

"You are so much more than that, Blaine," Peter replied and then realized his own mistake before Blaine could point it out. "And you're right, so are they."

Blaine was happy to be headed back to his dorm that night. Dinner had been nice, but also a little bit draining. Jeff could tell the moment Blaine walked in that something was off.

"What's wrong?"

"My Uncle doesn't know when to butt out is what's wrong," Blaine sighed, plopping down on to his bed still fully dressed.

"With what?" Jeff asked, closing his laptop and giving Blaine his full attention.

"He doesn't know when to not be an FBI agent and when to just be my Uncle," Blaine explained. "He literally did a background check on you, Avery and Nick. He knew why Avery and Nick were here when even I didn't. He just whips out the fact that I'm friends with a truant, a car thief and a vandal when I didn't even know."

"Nick's here for stealing cars with his older brother and Avery is here for vandalism of school property," Jeff said with a shrug. "Both of them are super open about it, all you had to do was ask. Nick's older brother Jeremy is in jail, while Nick got the anklet slapped on and was immediately sent here. Most people here are pretty open about why they are here. For a lot of them it's a way to bond with each other. Some of them I swear just try to out-do each other's crime story."

Blaine nodded. In his short time at the school he had noticed a lot of that.

"You should have seen the way some of the people at the restaurant looked at me though," Blaine said. "I swear they thought I was going to steal their wallets right out of their back pockets."

"Didn't you tell me you used to be a pick pocket?" Jeff asked with a laugh.

"I haven't done that in a while though," Blaine couldn't help but laugh as well.

The next morning at breakfast Jeff dragged Hunter over to their table so they could have a collective band meeting. Hunter looked like he wanted to do nothing more than collapse on the floor and go back to bed, but he rested his chin against his hand and appeared to be listening to what Jeff was saying.

"So I think we should go for something angsty for our next video, something that has a similar feel to what _Drown_ did. Everyone on YouTube is obsessed with our cover of the song. It's our most popular to date, so we want to build off that," Jeff suggested.

The boys all threw out different suggestions during breakfast, but they all eventually got turned down for not having exactly the right feel that they were looking for. It had to be a song that would work well with Blaine's voice. The discussion continued throughout the day and into study hall where Jeff looked extremely put out while doing his homework. He just couldn't find the right inspiration—until he heard Hunter singing softly to his iPod while doing his homework.

"THAT'S IT!" Jeff exclaimed, causing all of the heads in study hall to turn and look at him. "Er—sorry. I just got super excited that I figured out a math equation! Nothing to see here, just a kid getting excited about the quadratic formula."

Everyone rolled their eyes and went back to work, most of them quite used to Jeff's shenanigans and overenthusiasm. Avery, Blaine, and Nick knew better though. They knew based on the look on Jeff's face that he had figured out their next song. They were so excited when it was finally their turn to use the music room for practice.

"So what was this great a-ha moment you had in study hall?" Nick asked as they walked down the hallway to the music room.

"Well I heard Hunter singing under his breath and I just knew at that moment that we needed to cover that song," Jeff explained.

"What song?" Blaine asked, glancing at Hunter who shrugged.

"Teenagers by My Chemical Romance!" Jeff said, practically dancing on the spot.

"I can never pull that off vocally," Blaine said, but then caught eyes with Jeff and knew exactly what he was suggesting. "Yes! We should totally do that. He would sound great singing lead."

"What? Who?" Avery asked in confusion.

"Hunter will take the lead," Jeff explained.

"Er—are you sure?" Hunter asked, looking back and forth between Blaine and Jeff. "Blaine's a million times more talented of a singer than I am."

"We're positive," Blaine replied. "You are going to sound so much better on this track than I will and this will be the perfect introduction to you on our channel."

It took a couple more minutes of persuasion, but he finally agreed in the end. They worked hard and practiced for the next couple days on the song until they thought they had it just right and filmed it.

 _They're gonna clean up your looks,_

 _With all the lies in the books,_

 _To make a citizen out of you,_

 _Because they sleep with a gun,_

 _And keep an eye on you son,_

 _So they can watch all the things you do._

Blaine hadn't felt as excited for any of their other uploads as he did for this one. He really felt proud of the end product and hoped that their followers would enjoy it as well. They all went to sleep that night so proud of their work.

When they woke up the next morning, Blaine and Jeff immediately got up to check how many views they had gotten. Blaine had to triple check that the number was right. There was no way. It was unbelievable. They quickly found out why, too.

"Jacob Allmore tweeted out that he liked our video with the link to the video itself!" Jeff exclaimed.

Blaine couldn't believe it. Jacob Allmore was a huge star among Top 40 radio. He was the quintessential teen heart throb. Blaine listened to some of his music, because it was actually pretty good. He never really got into him though, because he's legion of tween and teen girls kind of scared Blaine off.

"Dude this is huge!" Jeff said, practically dancing on the spot.

They all lived off of that high all throughout the day. Blaine couldn't believe that many people actually had interest in listening to their covers.

"You know what the next step is right?" Avery asked them as they all sat in the music room that afternoon.

They all shook their heads and looked at him in askance.

"We have to create our own stuff now," Avery said. "We've got success off of the covers, so it only makes logical sense to move on to original songs."

That night Blaine headed to his dorm room while Nick and Jeff were hanging out in the student lounge. He had to call Kurt and talk to him.

"Blaine!" Kurt exclaimed as soon as he answered his phone. "You will never believe this! Adam is taking me with him to a real Broadway audition in a couple weeks. There is an opening casting call for a new musical!"

"That's awesome, Kurt," Blaine said, a huge smile appearing on his face. "I've got some huge news too!"

"What is it?" Kurt asked.

"Our cover on YouTube just got shared by Jacob Allmore!" Blaine exclaimed.

"No way! That's incredible, Blaine!" Kurt replied.

Blaine then heard some talking in the background and then he heard Kurt's muffled voice replying to whoever was speaking with him.

"I have to go! I'm at rehearsal and it's about to be my scene," Kurt said, "Talk to you later, Blaine and congrats!"

With that said Kurt hung up, leaving Blaine feeling uneasy once more. That feeling seemed to persist over the next couple weeks. They hardly had time to talk to each other anymore, and any time they were on the phone it was a very quick conversation about how they didn't have much time to talk. Kurt was busy with the musical and with preparing for his audition. Blaine spent every waking moment in school or in the music room trying to come up with an original song for the next show case. They tried writing solo, writing as a group, and writing in different pairs. They had some good songs, but so far nothing struck out to them as the perfect song.

It was about a week before their next showcase, and Blaine was sat in his dorm room strumming his guitar. He had just had another unsatisfying conversation on the phone with Kurt. Then it hit him. He had the perfect inspiration.

Jeff walked into the dorm an hour later and Blaine immediately played his finished song for him. Jeff's jaw dropped.

"That's exactly what we need," Jeff exclaimed, flipping out camera. "We are recording this right now."

Blaine played the song again for Jeff. The next week they all learned the song and perfected it by that Friday night. Blaine felt the pressure on him. It was the night before everyone left for spring break, meaning that his Uncle and Aunt would actually be there for the show. He wanted to show them that what they were doing was worthwhile.

They drew the last slot of the show, and waited in the back once more so they wouldn't have to hear how the other acts did. They wanted to be in the moment.

"And our final act of the night," Mr. Fitzgerald introduced. "XVI."

The boys had spent a long time discussing what their band name should be. Now that they were starting to get some serious traction, they figured this could really be the name that stuck. This was the final result, as all of them were sixteen.

They all took their spots on the stage. Blaine took a deep breath and began the song that meant so much to him. The words echoing his innermost thoughts at the moment.

 _Are we wasting time,_

 _Talking on a broken line,_

 _Telling you I haven't seen your face in ages,_

 _I feel like we're as close as strangers,_

 _Won't give up,_

 _Even though it hurts so much_

Blaine let the words take over his mind, blocking out the fact that there even was an audience. All that mattered to him were the words and the strumming of the guitar.

 _Late night calls and another text,_

 _Is this as good as it's gonna get,_

 _Another time zone taking me away from you_

Blaine noticed that his eyes were watering up. He tried to fight it off, but knew he wouldn't be successful.

 _On the phone I can tell that you want to move on,_

 _Through the tears I can hear that I shouldn't have gone,_

 _Every day it gets harder to stay away from you_

Blaine felt a tear slide down his cheek as he got to the last line of the song.

 _But tomorrow I'll be coming back to you_

The crowd immediately burst into cheers and a standing ovation. Blaine wiped the tear on his cheek and grinned from ear to ear. Performing the song was very cathartic for Blaine.

When they walked off stage they all engulfed each other in one big group hug. They nailed that, and they all knew it. The judges clearly felt that way as well, because they placed first in the showcase.

"Congrats Blaine!" Elizabeth said, running up to him and pulling him into a tight hug. "You guys were incredible."

Peter was right behind Elizabeth and offered his congrats as well.

"Can I talk to you a minute, Blaine?" Hunter asked, coming up behind them.

Peter and Elizabeth offered their congrats to Hunter as well before he led Blaine off to the side.

"I've been ignoring it all week, since we've been rehearsing like crazy," Hunter began. "I have to ask, though. Are you okay? That song was pretty intense."

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine," Blaine said with a sigh. "I mean I think Kurt and I might be in trouble, but I'm fine. I'll see him this week, so hopefully things will get better."

"Are you sure?" Hunter asked, not fully believing Blaine.

"Yeah, I'm sure," Blaine said, forcing a smile.

Peter and Elizabeth took Hunter and Blaine out to dinner that night at the same Italian restaurant that Peter had taken Blaine. They didn't receive any scathing looks this time, since they weren't in their school uniforms. It was much more relaxing.

Blaine headed back to his dorm that night ready to collapse in bed of exhaustion. That wasn't the case, though. As soon as he walked in the door, Jeff frantically called him over to look at his laptop. He had uploaded a video of their performance from that evening. He pointed to some of the top comments. Blaine's heart sank as he read them.

 **Xxhailzzey4xx:** Exposing time! I went to school with Nick and he got arrested for like stealing cars or something and got sent off to a reform school! These boys are all at a reform school together.

 **Jamielady1:** that's so not true. Stop trying to get attention

 **Hubbabubba40:** no this is totally true. Their school uniforms in the other videos are from Elton Walker School for Boys in Littleton, Colorado. My cousin was sent there. Here's a link to the school site if you don't believe me. You'll see the uniforms match.

 **Thank you so much for reading. The first song is Teenagers by MCR (so sad it's not actually a reunion) and the second song is Close as Strangers by 5 Seconds of Summer. Well I'm off to work on the next chapter! Let me know what you think!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Blaine thought this was the worst time they could all be separated. Nick and Avery were together on a school mission trip in Central America. The trip was for those that either couldn't go home for Spring Break, didn't want to, or weren't overly welcomed at home. Blaine didn't know all of the details, but Nick and Avery both fell into the 'weren't really welcomed with open arms at home' category. Jeff was off to Hawaii for the week for a vacation with his family. Blaine wished he was joining him in the warm weather, but alas Blaine and Hunter were headed back to their two mile radius in New York. It was the middle of March, but the temperature was still hovering in the upper 30s.

During the plane trip home Blaine fretted about what to do about the comments on the YouTube video. For the moment they decided to let them be. There wasn't much they could do with them all scattered about. This gave them all a week to decide how to best approach the situation. Do they ignore them? Do they address them? If they address them, how would they do it?

"I still say we just ignore them," Hunter said for what felt like the fiftieth time on the flight. "If we don't address them they might just go away."

"They aren't going to go away," Blaine replied. "Not now that they have been proven true by that girl and her link to our school website. We should have never posted videos in our uniforms."

"The thought honestly would never have crossed my mind," Hunter replied with a shrug.

He was much more nonchalant about the situation than Blaine was, but Blaine figured that was because he was nowhere near as invested in the band.

"So are you going to tell me what's been going on with you and Kurt?" Hunter asked, changing the subject to the one subject that Blaine was feeling even worse about than the YouTube comments.

"I just feel like we are drifting apart. We aren't setting aside the time for each other like we used to. I'm so busy with this band and he's so busy with Adam, the play and the audition," Blaine explained.

"Who is Adam?"

"The director of the play," Blaine said with a shrug. "He is the one that is getting Kurt prepared for a Broadway audition."

"Are you worried he's cheating on you?" Hunter asked carefully.

"Well I wasn't…" Blaine replied. "Should I be? I honestly didn't give Adam all that much thought. I mean I hang out with Nick, Jeff, Avery and you all the time and he doesn't complain."

"Well none of us are gay," Hunter stated.

"Who said Adam was gay?" Blaine asked.

"The dude does musicals," Hunter said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"That doesn't mean he's gay," Blaine replied, rolling his eyes in annoyance. "And Jeff is bi so you would be wrong on that point."

Hunter thought about that for a moment.

"I guess I should have seen that," Hunter said. "The relationship between Jeff and Nick isn't like most guy friends."

"Jeff and Nick aren't dating," Blaine replied.

"Whatever you say," Hunter replied, putting his headphones in his ears and putting his music on.

Blaine stared at him for a moment, rolled his eyes, and then promptly leaned against the window—falling asleep for the rest of the flight.

It was right around dinner time that they got home that night. Elizabeth called for a pizza and told Blaine to go put his things in his room and freshen up for dinner. He did as he was asked, and when he came back down there was a surprise waiting for him in the living room. There stood Cooper, Kurt, Burt, Finn, Carole, and Rachel. Kurt immediately came up and pulled Blaine into a tight bear hug.

"Oh I've missed you," Kurt said into Blaine's ear.

One word came to Blaine's mind as they embraced: _home._

"I've missed you too," Blaine said, choking on the words a little as he felt very emotional.

When Blaine and Kurt separated, Blaine greeted his brother and the rest of their guests.

"It hasn't been the same without you, little bro," Cooper said, pulling Blaine into a hug as well. "Much less dramatic, but I missed you all the same."

Blaine rolled his eyes at that—classic Cooper.

It was a great dinner in Blaine's opinion. Everyone immediately dug into the pizzas and salads that Elizabeth had ordered. Rather than sit at the kitchen table, they all sat around the living room chatting with the TV on softly in the background.

"So how has Colorado been?" Finn asked, after shoving a huge slice of pizza in his mouth. Blaine was impressed that he could even speak with that much food in his mouth.

"It's good," Blaine said. "Cold, but good."

"Still despising the uniform I'm sure," Kurt joked.

Blaine laughed, thinking how true that statement was especially at the moment. "You have no idea."

"Have you joined a Glee Club there?" Rachel asked. "Will we potentially be up against you at Nationals?"

"No, there is no Glee Club at my school," Blaine replied. "We don't compete against other schools in anything. All of our school competitions are our own houses against each other. Everyone is required to participate in a sport or in music. I chose music of course."

"So you don't get to perform on stage in front of huge audiences?" Rachel asked, as if that was the worst thing in the world.

"The whole school shows up to our showcases, but other than that no," Blaine replied with a shrug.

"But he is making quite a name for himself on YouTube," Cooper piped up from his spot on the couch.

Blaine hadn't even realized that Cooper was listening in on their conversation and blushed red at that.

"What do you mean?" Finn asked.

"His band is posting covers of songs on YouTube and a certain Jacob Allmore retweeted one of their covers," Cooper said, his pride his brother evident in the way he spoke.

"No way! How did you get him to do that," Rachel asked. "Give me all the details. I've never been able to get any of my covers on YouTube to get success. They only get nasty comments from the cheerleaders and the football players at McKinley."

"My friend Jeff has been posting covers for a while and had a little bit of a following to begin with," Blaine explained. "When we started a band together he just started to put our covers on there too and the audience grew somehow. I don't know how Jacob Allmore saw it."

Rachel continued to grill him about it for a couple minutes before Blaine had enough and decided to change the topic.

"How come we aren't talking about how Kurt is getting himself ready for a Broadway audition," Blaine said, grabbing Kurt's hand a squeezing it tight.

Kurt smiled at Blaine. This successfully shifted the conversation over to Kurt and his audition and then to everything that was happening at McKinley while Blaine was gone. By the end of the night Blaine was exhausted from so much travel and conversation. He was really looking forward to going up and getting into his nice soft warm bed. He was getting ready for bed when he heard a knock on the door. Blaine turned to see Cooper standing there.

"Hey, can we talk for a second?" Cooper asked.

Blaine nodded and sat down on his bed. Cooper walked over and pulled out Blaine's desk chair.

"So I saw the comments on the latest video that you guys posted," Cooper began and Blaine couldn't help but let out a sigh.

"I guess I was stupid to think that I could keep those two parts of my life separate," Blaine said.

"They don't know what you did though," Cooper said. "They're just left to speculate why you are at a school for troubled teen boys."

"It won't be long before someone from McKinley posts something about what happened," Blaine said, defeat evident in his voice. "I can't control who says what."

"No, no one can," Cooper replied. "But you can control how you respond to it."

"And how do you think I should respond? Hunter thinks that we should just ignore it," Blaine said.

"I think that's up to you to figure out," Cooper said. "You are growing up into your own man and I want to let you make your own decisions."

Blaine pondered Cooper's words, but they left him feeling even more frustrated. He wanted someone in his life to tell him exactly what to do. That was how everything always seemed to go. First, you had Mr. Clarington who told him how to live the life of a thief and con artist. He was there for Hunter and Blaine every step of the way. He taught Blaine how to pick pockets and pull off successful heists. Then after he got caught, he had his Uncle controlling every aspect of his life. Everyone seemed to love to tell Blaine what to do or how to live. Why couldn't Cooper do that now?

"Goodnight little brother," Cooper said, getting up and ruffling Blaine's hair. "I'll see you sometime tomorrow."

Blaine scowled at Cooper for ruffling his hair, and watched as his older brother walked out of the room in petulant silence.

Sunday was spent with just his family. They spent the day watching movies together and they all helped Elizabeth make a huge Italian dinner. Blaine didn't see Kurt at all that day. Kurt had rehearsal for the play that day, since the show was quickly approaching. Blaine didn't know why he thought he would spend most of his Spring Break with Kurt. He had obviously forgotten about the fact that Kurt himself wasn't on Spring Break. Blaine spent most of his time off hanging around the house with Elizabeth when she wasn't at work. Hunter was apparently grounded by Mr. Fulton for his stunt with the phone in Colorado. He was keeping Hunter pretty much on lockdown. Kurt spent his day in school, then on Monday, Wednesday, Friday afternoons he immediately had Glee practice. After Glee practice he then went to play rehearsal and didn't make it back home until just in time to go to bed. On Tuesday and Thursday he met up with Blaine at the local coffee shop for an hour before heading off to play rehearsal. Blaine enjoyed his time with Kurt, but it didn't fully satisfy him enough. Thursday afternoon coffee was the first time that Blaine met the infamous Adam.

The two were sitting at the Lima Bean drinking their coffee and discussing their opinions on Miley Cyrus and whether her outfits and stage props detracted from her being a credible artist or were a genius form of theatricality. Blaine thought it overshadowed her music and lyrics, which were the bread and butter of being a good artist. Kurt thought it was a genius theatrical move, arguing that there was more to the music industry than just the song itself.

"I thought I might run into you here," a voice with a distinct British accent said, coming up behind them and startling Blaine.

Blaine turned and saw a tall handsome boy with sandy blond hair partially covered by a blue beanie. He was casually dressed in blue jeans, a white tee with a blue plaid flannel overtop, and gray converse. He had a gray jacket draped over his arm. He was effortlessly cool. He didn't put as much thought into fashion as Kurt did, yet he looked much more put together than Blaine felt the moment. Blaine was wearing a black hoodie, black Sex Pistols tee, and black jeans. His black boots were just wide enough to fit his anklet inside of them, though if you looked at them closely you would notice the bulge where his anklet sat.

"Adam!" Kurt exclaimed upon seeing the Brit. "Join us!"

Kurt gestured to the empty chair and Adam immediately sat down.

"Adam this is my boyfriend Blaine, Blaine this is Adam," Kurt said, introducing the two to each other.

They exchanged the general greetings, and in Blaine's mind sizing each other up.

"So you have quite the talented boyfriend," Adam said to Blaine. "It's truly an honor to be able to direct him in this musical. He's really got a gift."

"He is something special," Blaine agreed.

"Hopefully these Broadway producers will think the same thing," Kurt added in. "It's in twelve days and I'm admittedly starting to get nervous."

"You're going to rock that audition, Kurt," Adam added in. "You nailed that note in Defying Gravity."

Blaine nodded in agreement to the first part, admittedly clueless as to what Adam was talking about in the second part.

That was how Blaine felt the rest of the time at the café went. Blaine was generally clueless as to most of what Kurt and Adam were talking about. Blaine was truly missing a lot by being in Colorado.

Kurt and Adam were getting ready to leave for their rehearsal, but Kurt made a quick trip to the bathroom before leaving so Blaine and Adam were left alone together.

"So Kurt told me that you go to school out in Colorado," Adam said casually. "It's like a reform school, right?"

Blaine was taken aback by that for a moment, not at all expecting those words out of Adam's mouth.

"Not technically," Blaine replied but then hesitantly added. "But essentially, yes."

"Kurt has quickly become one of my best friends," Adam added. "I don't want you to hurt him. As I've said, he's special."

"He's my boyfriend," Blaine replied indignant. "Just because I go to a reform school doesn't mean that I'm a bad person and that I'm going to hurt him."

"From what he's told me about you, I just don't trust you all that much," Adam shrugged. "I mean you wear a tracking anklet. Clearly I'm not the only one that has trust issues when it comes to you."

At that moment Kurt came hurrying back from the bathroom.

"Sorry that took so long," Kurt said grabbing all of his things quickly. "I got caught up fixing my hair. If we are late, it's my fault!"

Kurt pecked Blaine on the lips and then hurried out the door. Adam gave Blaine one last look and then followed after Kurt. Blaine sat there in shock for a couple minutes, trying to figure out what the hell just happened.

It wasn't until Friday night that Blaine got to see Kurt again. Rehearsals only ran until 7 on Friday nights, so Kurt went home and freshened up before meeting Blaine at the Burke's house. Blaine and Kurt had the house to themselves, since Peter and Elizabeth went out to dinner with Burt and Carole. The evening started fine enough. They heated up some leftovers for dinner and sat on the couch watching an old horror film. The problems didn't arise until the movie was over and they began to talk.

"So I didn't get the chance to ask, but what did you think of Adam?" Kurt asked.

"Er—I'm going to be honest Kurt," Blaine said, Kurt's smile immediately dropping. "I think he is super into you."

"We are just friends Blaine," Kurt said, going on the defensive. "Don't you trust me?"

"It's him I don't trust," Blaine replied.

"Why?"

"He doesn't like me," Blaine stated.

"Where in the world did you get that idea? He was perfectly nice the entire time that the two of you were together," Kurt argued.

"At least while you were there," Blaine added.

"He said something to you while I ran to the bathroom?" Kurt asked, sounding skeptical.

"He basically alluded to the fact that since I'm a criminal he thought I would hurt you and warned me against it," Blaine explained.

He didn't get the response that he thought he would though.

"He's just looking out for me," Kurt replied. "He is pretty protective, almost like an older brother I never had."

"You have Finn," Blaine argued.

"Finn is actually younger than me," Kurt said.

"That's not the point though," Blaine said, shaking his head in frustration. "Where do you get off telling him all about me?"

"Did you think I wasn't going to tell my best friend about my boyfriend?" Kurt asked, genuine confusion on his face.

"You didn't have to tell him all the bad stuff though. Why did you tell him I go to a reform school in Colorado and that I wear an anklet?" Blaine asked.

"You do go to a reform school in Colorado and you do wear an anklet, Blaine," Kurt replied, rolling his eyes. "I'm open and honest with Adam. He's been my rock while you've been away. He's really become my best friend."

"Then what am I?" Blaine asked, clearly hurt.

"As far as I'm aware, my boyfriend," Kurt replied. "Last I checked I'm allowed to have both. You certainly have Hunter as your best friend. You tell him everything. There are no secrets between the two of you."

"That's not entirely true," Blaine replied. "I don't go around telling Hunter about your private secrets."

"What secrets? I don't have any deep dark secrets that I would mind you sharing with Hunter!" Kurt exclaimed.

"Oh that's right," Blaine bit back. "I forgot that you're Mr. Perfect, never doing anything wrong. I also should have remembered that you don't know how to keep your mouth shut. You go running off to my Uncle to tattle on me without hearing my side of the story. When it comes down to it, you believe the worst in me."

They both had tears streaming down their faces at this point. Blaine's last statement was the last straw. Kurt wiped his tears off his face and gave Blaine a cold hard look.

"I guess Adam is right," Kurt said. "I'm too good for you."

With that said, Kurt turned on his heel and stormed out the front door. Blaine sat there fuming, trying to process what had just happened. He didn't know how long he sat there for, but the next thing he knew the garage door into the kitchen swung open and Blaine heard rushed footsteps into the living room. His Uncle was followed in by Elizabeth and Mr. Fulton. They all looked frantic.

"Hunter cut his anklet and ran," Peter said, causing Blaine's stomach to drop and his head to start spinning.

 **Once again thank you to everyone that reads this story. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and let me know what you think. It certainly just got much more dramatic.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Thank you to anyone that has stuck with this story! You mean the world to me. With that said, here is the next chapter...**

 **Chapter 7**

It was a very long night for both Blaine and Peter. Blaine was taken into the FBI White Collar office and asked about a billion questions, trying to figure out what he knew. Blaine could tell a lot of the agents were skeptical when he said that he had no idea Hunter was planning this. He was just relieved that his Uncle seemed to believe him.

"I told you," Blaine said, running his hands through his hair in frustration. "Hunter was grounded the entire week. I haven't seen him since we were at the airport."

Blaine had lost track of the agents' names, since there was just way too many of them. Whichever agent it was, nodded and walked away. Blaine glanced at the clock on the conference room wall and saw that it was now 6 am. He had been there all night, having napped for about two hours on one of the chairs in Peter's office. He was tired.

A commotion by the front doors of the White Collar office caught his eye, and he watched in confusion as Peter walked through them followed closely by Kurt and Burt. Blaine watched them walk through the office and up to Peter's office. Instead of following them in, Peter came into the conference room.

"What are they doing here?" Blaine couldn't help but ask.

"We are questioning Kurt since he knew Hunter," Peter said.

"He didn't know Hunter that well," Blaine replied. "He didn't even like him."

"We are following any potential leads we can get," Peter replied. "Come on, join us in my office."

Blaine sighed and got up, heading into his Uncle's office. It wasn't lost on him that they were keeping a close eye on him. He knew they were all making sure he wasn't going to run as well. He had hardly been alone the entire time he had been at the FBI. Even when he took the nap in Peter's office, Peter had been sitting there working on his computer.

Blaine walked into the office, avoiding all eye contact with Kurt. He sat in the chair the Peter indicated, unfortunately right next to Kurt. Burt was leaning against the left hand side wall with his arms crossed.

"So we found a note in Hunter's room addressed to the two of you," Peter began.

Blaine perked up at that. What would Hunter write to Kurt?

Peter put two copies of the note on the desk in front of them. Blaine read his copy quickly.

 **Blaine,**

 **If you never shoot, you'll never know.**

 **And if you never eat, you'll never grow.**

 **Kurt, you have his heart. Don't break it.**

"Does this mean anything to you?" Peter asked. "I get Kurt's part, but what's yours Blaine."

"It's song lyrics," Kurt said softly, answering even though it was addressed at Blaine.

Peter's and Blaine's heads both snapped to look at Kurt. Peter's expression was excited, hopeful that he would understand what the message was. Blaine's expression was shocked.

"How did you know that?" Blaine asked.

"I listened to the 1975," Kurt said with a shrug, not looking at Blaine. "I knew how much it meant to you and Hunter and I was just trying to understand you better."

Blaine's mouth was agape.

"I didn't know you did that," Blaine said, staring at Kurt as if he had never really seen him before.

"See I'm not the villain you paint me to be," Kurt couldn't help but shoot back.

Peter looked between the two of them in confusion.

"I never said you were the villain, I just said that I don't like Adam and I don't like that you told him about me," Blaine replied with just as much venom.

"What's going on here?" Peter asked.

"Nothing," both Blaine and Kurt huffed at the same time.

"Ignoring the fact that both of you are lying through your teeth," Peter said after a couple minutes of silence. "Blaine, any ideas why he would put those particular song lyrics?"

"It's from the song _Robbers_ ," Blaine replied softly, staring at the desk in front of him. "It's Hunter's way of saying that he tried playing by the rules, but it's not who he is. He has to see what he can do with the life his father is laying out for him. He thinks that at our core the both of us aren't meant to play by the rules of others."

"You got all of that from two lines of song lyrics?" Burt asked in awe, from where he was leaning against the wall. He had been quiet so far, so much so that Blaine had forgotten he was even there.

"It's obvious when you know Hunter as well as I do," Blaine shrugged, glancing over at Burt. "Find Mr. Clarington, and you'll find Hunter. He ran away to meet up with his father, I'll bet you anything."

"Well that's easier said than done," Peter said, getting up from his office chair and pacing. "Every time we think we are close, he just disappears."

"Well if you are trying to find Hunter, all you have to do is look on his tag," Kurt added in.

Everyone in the room looked at Kurt in confusion.

"You guys aren't huge by any means, but you do have fans now," Kurt explained. "I know Jeff's actually been asked for a couple autographs. He's in Hawaii right?"

"I didn't tell you that, how did you know that?" Blaine asked, his eyes narrowing in confusion.

Kurt didn't reply, but instead pulled out his phone and went on to Tumblr. He typed Jeff Sterling into the search bar. He leaned over and showed Blaine, scrolling through it. Sure enough, there were a couple pictures of Jeff with girls in Hawaii.

"You guys all have people talking about you," Kurt explained. "You probably haven't had a fan encounter yet because you've just stayed in your two mile radius. If you walked around the city you might run into someone though. Jacob Allmore tweeting out your link has really started a frenzy."

"So you are saying that if I keep a close eye on Hunter on this tumblr website, some fan could potentially post a picture allowing me to find out where Hunter is?" Peter asked.

"Potentially, yes," Kurt said. "He's not in his radius so he has a much larger potential to run into someone who knows him."

Blaine was still trying to process that they had people talking about them on tumblr. They were admittedly very sheltered in their boarding school, and Jeff was the one who dealt directly with their YouTube. Blaine knew they were getting a ridiculous amount of views, but this. This was mind-blowing.

"You two stay here," Peter said, looking like a little kid on Christmas. "I'm going to go talk to the rest of the team."

Peter hurriedly walked out of his office, shutting the door behind him. This left Kurt and Blaine with Burt. Burt studied the two boys for a moment, looking at the odd way they were acting around each other. He didn't know all of the details, but he knew that Kurt was very upset over something to do with Blaine.

"I'm going to get some coffee," Burt said, heading out of the room as well.

The tension level in the room rose as Burt closed the door behind him. Blaine coughed and shifted awkwardly in his chair. Kurt played with his sweater cuff.

"So I saw the video of you at the most recent showcase," Kurt said, finally breaking the silence. "Interesting song. I'm assuming you wrote it."

Blaine's stomach dropped. He hadn't thought about the possibility that Kurt was watching their videos and would hear the song.

"I—I don't know what to say here Kurt," Blaine admitted. "It's what I was feeling."

"I was excited for you to come home. I thought that everything was going to be sunshine and rainbows. I heard the song though," Kurt said. "And it forced me to admit that I was feeling that way too. I didn't know how to act around you after that."

"You were fine Saturday night when I got home," Blaine argued.

"I didn't hear the song until after Saturday night," Kurt replied. "I talked to Adam about it."

"Of course you run to him," Blaine couldn't keep the bitterness out of his voice.

"I didn't run to Adam, he noticed I was upset," Kurt defended. "It all just came rushing out. I didn't mean to tell him about your past…or uh your present."

Blaine sighed.

"What are we doing?" Blaine asked, running a hand down his face in frustration. "I feel like every conversation we have ends in an argument."

"That's because it has been," Kurt said, with an equal amount of evident frustration. "Somewhere along the way we've stopped learning how to communicate. Where do we go from here?"

"I guess we take a break from dating," Blaine said after a couple moments of silence.

"I think that's for the best," Kurt agreed, wiping a tear as it made its way down his face. We go back to being friends. We aren't in any place right now to be each other's boyfriends."

Blaine was immensely relieved to step back on to campus early Sunday afternoon. His Spring Break was nothing like he had hoped it would be, and it was such a relief to be within the walls of Elton Walker once more.

"So how was spending time with your boyfriend?" Jeff asked the moment that Blaine walked in the room, turning away from the computer he had been focusing on just a moment before.

"Well the fact that you now need to add 'ex' to that sentence should tell you everything," Blaine sighed, putting his bag down on the floor next to his bed. "I hope you had a better break in Hawaii then I did."

"I certainly did a lot of thinking," Jeff said, standing up and crossing the room to Blaine. "Especially after you texted to tell me that Hunter ran off."

Jeff looked sympathetically at Blaine for a moment before pulling him into a tight hug.

"Thanks," Blaine said when they pulled apart, admittedly feeling a little bit better than he had before. "What were you thinking about?"

"Well I think I know what we need to do about the YouTube comments," Jeff replied, and then continued when Blaine looked at him in askance. "I think we need to directly address them in a Livestream tonight. There is no point in hiding who we are. I don't want to feel trapped like Hunter. I want to be open and honest about my life."

"What do the other guys think?" Blaine asked, sitting down on his bed. He had to admit that Jeff wasn't there for as bad of a reason as the rest of them, he wondered if the others would be so open.

"I haven't seen either of them yet," Jeff admitted. "They should be back within the half hour though. We are all meeting in the student lounge in an hour."

Blaine spent the next half hour unpacking his things and then taking a quick shower. Next thing he knew he was in the student lounge meeting up with Avery and Nick.

"Hey guys," Avery said, when they walked up. "I can't believe Hunter ran off on you man."

"I can't say it was entirely unexpected," Blaine admitted.

They spent the next half hour catching up on their breaks. Blaine filled them in on all the details of Hunter running off and the interrogation that ensued after, as well as the Blaine and Kurt breakup. Jeff told them all about Hawaii and how he had met a couple of their fans. Jeff seemed to have a very close relationship with his parents, even though from the sounds of them they were very strict. Avery and Nick discussed their mission trip to Central America. Blaine found out that despite it being very heavily chaperoned, like two supervisors to each student chaperoned, they had a wonderful time.

"I mean there was no chance to sneak off to the local town and party it up with the superhot girls," Avery complained. "Mr. Jordan took the bed right by the window and Mr. Cahill took the bed by the door."

"They slept in the same room as you?" Blaine asked.

"Yep, three to a room," Nick answered. "Each student and their two assigned faculty or volunteer supervisors."

"It's like they were afraid we'd run off or something," Avery joked.

"Did you have to keep your anklet on?" Jeff asked, looking over at Nick.

"Dude this thing isn't coming off until I'm 18," Nick said with a groan. "They had a special group for the three of us on the trip that had anklets. We all had cops that volunteered to go on the trip as our supervisors. Our radius was the building we were staying in. Every time we went to work we were escorted by our supervisors. Officer Daryl and Officer Meyer were great, though. They were absolutely hilarious, and I have both of their emails to correspond with. I just wish my radius was larger and I could have spent a little bit of time doing unchaperoned exploring."

"That's harsh," Blaine said sympathetically, knowing how much he despised his own anklet. "What radius do you normally have at home?"

"Three miles," Nick replied. "You?"

"Two."

At that point the conversation shifted over to Jeff who had begun to explain to Avery and Nick about his plan for addressing the YouTube comments. Eventually they all agreed, and decided to do a livestream that evening after dinner. They didn't want to do it on a school night, since they had much more limited free time on those nights.

Leading up to the livestream Blaine got more and more nervous. He was really about to bare himself to their thousands of YouTube followers. Blaine figured that most of them wouldn't actually be tuning into the livestream while it was on, given time zone differences and such. However, he knew that nothing on the internet was truly ever gone so their video would still potentially be seen by all of their audience and potentially more.

They sat down on the couch in the student center, the laptop placed on a table in front of them. Jeff took a deep breath before hitting the button that would mean that this was recording live. As planned, Jeff started it all off.

"So as I'm sure a lot of you know, there have been some comments on some of our recent videos discussing who were are and what our past is like," Jeff began. "We all spent the last week on our Spring Break apart, each of us pondering how to deal with these comments. There were moments that we were tempted to just ignore them, but that didn't feel like we were being our true selves and being open and honest with you. So we eventually decided to do this livestream to address these comments and let you know who we really are. We hope that you will still support us, even after you hear each of our individual stories. After we tell our stories, we will answer some of the questions that you have."

Avery jumped in at this point.

"So the best place to start," Avery said. "Is to say that yes, we do attend Elton Walker School for Boys, and yes it is a school for troubled teen boys. I guess I might as well start with my story. So I had just finished my freshman year of high school in my town in Texas. Admittedly, I wanted nothing more than to be popular. I made friends with not necessarily the best influences, but it meant that I was on top of the social ladder and I was happy. After our freshman year ended, there were lots of parties, celebrating the graduating seniors. As some of the most popular boys from the freshman class, my friends and I got invited to these parties. One party in particular, on the 5th of June, my friends and I got super plastered drunk. Somewhere along the line we either got dared or decided that it was a great idea to break into school grounds and graffiti the wall outside of the principal's office. We also decided to throw rocks at his window because he had given us detention too many times, or something else equally as idiotic. I don't really remember all the details because I was so drunk. Of course we set off the school alarms and the cops showed up. Next thing I knew I woke up hungover in a holding cell at the police station. Needless to say, I was grounded that entire summer. I did nothing but help my dad out on the ranch all day and then when I wasn't working I was stuck in the house. Come September I got the news that I was being sent to Elton Walker. My parents had many conversations with my principal over the summer and did research into boarding schools that they thought would benefit me. This ended up being their top pick, and I've been here ever since."

"Unlike Avery, I'm actually local to Elton Walker," Nick began. "Growing up I always idealized my older brother. He taught me the coolest things, and showed me the best ways to survive—or so I thought. He showed me at a very young age how to hot wire a car. It was sort of a game between us, who could jack the best cars. We would steal them and bring them to our Uncle who would sell them or break them apart for parts. My parents had no idea that this was going on. They were going through a really messy divorce at the time, and my brother and I tried to be at home as little as possible. We spent most of our time out on the streets, hanging with lots of unsavory characters—most of them friends of my brother. Obviously this was not the brightest idea, and the summer before my junior year of high school I got caught jacking a car with my brother. My brother was over 18 by that time and got sent to jail. However, the guy whose car we jacked is the Headmaster of this school. He worked out a deal in which I would have this," Nick put his right leg up on the couch, pulling back his pant leg to reveal his anklet. "And would attend this school for the rest of my high school career. Obviously the Headmaster keeps a very annoyingly close watch on me. I also will have this anklet on until I turn 18."

Blaine had no idea that this was how Nick had come to Elton Walker. He knew he was here for stealing a car, but didn't realize that it ended up being the headmaster's car. Talk about karma. Although, this was probably the best the situation could be. Instead of going to juvie, Nick was really getting a chance to get his life together.

"I guess it's my turn then," Jeff said after Nick finished. "So I grew up in a small town by the beach outside of Los Angeles. I was given all the opportunities that you could really ask for. I grew up with very accepting parents and some great friends. I was bored though. I felt like my school wasn't challenging me and I wanted something more out of life. I met my ex-boyfriend Justin the summer before my junior year of high school. He was going to be a freshman in college and I thought the world of him. He just seemed so smart and interesting, unlike all of the people my age. I know that was immensely unfair of me to say, but I had known everyone in my school since we were in kindergarten. I wanted something new. We spent the summer hanging out on the beach, discussing life and the future. We both talked about where we wanted to go together, we were convinced that we were going to travel the world. School started back up, and I wasn't ready to let go of my time with Justin. Instead of going to class, I decided to skip school and hang out with Justin. We would hang out on the beach, or I would hang out around his campus while he was in classes. I seriously think that in September I went to a total of three days of classes. I would call into school pretending to be my parents and claiming that I was sick. Of course, one of the teachers eventually ran into my parents and asked about my wellbeing. Of course, the cat was out of the bag at that point. My parents found out what was happening and they were furious. They immediately searched for schools that would ensure that I stayed in line. They found Elton Walker and I was here a couple days later."

Blaine took a deep breath to steady himself. It was finally his turn to tell his story.

"I was born and raised in New York City," Blaine began his story. "I lost my dad at a very early age and after that I had a very strained relationship with my mother, which only worsened when I came out to her as a freshman. My mother was insufferable to the point that my brother couldn't stand to come around. I made close friends with Hunter, who was briefly in our band. I basically lived with him and his father my freshman and sophomore years. Hunter's father was different than most fathers in the sense that he trained us to pull cons. He realized early on that I was good at art, and worked with me to forge and steal paintings. Eventually I got caught by the FBI for stealing a painting from the Met. My Uncle happens to work for the White Collar Unit of the FBI, and I got released on a deal involving this." As Nick had done, Blaine lifted his leg and showed off his anklet. "After a while it was clear that staying in New York was not the best for me, because that was where Hunter's father was and he was still able to reach me. My Uncle is friends with the Headmaster here, so I got sent here this January. As far as I'm aware, I'll be here until I graduate. Like Nick, I also have my anklet on until I turn 18 as of now."

"Well I'm almost afraid to say it," Jeff said with a laugh. "But you can start sending us your questions."

The questions started to pour in really fast, they were hard to read. Some of them Blaine saw were just asking for the boys to say they loved them or their country. Others were just asking for shout outs or Happy Birthday wishes. Some Blaine found to be slightly disturbing like the comment that said **So have all of you been handcuffed? That's really hot.** Jeff clearly saw the comment as well because he said out loud, "No, I have never been handcuffed before. I don't know about it being hot though, from what Nick described it's not very comfortable."

"It's not," Blaine, Nick, and Avery all said at once.

"Oh this question here is a good one," Avery said pointing at the screen. "Is Elton Walker only a school for people who have committed a crime?"

"I haven't committed a crime!" Jeff exclaimed.

Avery laughed, "That's true. Truancy isn't technically a crime. To answer the question though, no, there are all kinds of guys here. You have those that have committed crimes. From what you've seen of just the four of us you get a range of stories. There are several students on anklets here. However, you have those that are here just because they do better in a more structured environment. It's a great school academically which draws some parents to send their kids here, especially the ones that consider their kids insubordinate."

They answered some more questions about Elton Walker that were coming through.

"This one here wants to know what we mean by structured environment," Blaine said, pointing to a comment. "Well we have a very strict schedule. We get up, go to breakfast, class, extracurricular, study hall, dinner, have a bit of free time and then have a curfew. Even on the weekends there is something of a schedule."

"We also have to meet with our Head of House on a weekly basis," Nick added in. "We discuss how our classes are going and everything that's going on in our lives. You most likely chat with your Head of House more than once in the week, but there is a formal sit down scheduled with them."

"We also have a strict no bullying policy, as well as a very strict code of conduct and dress," Jeff explained. "Other than the weekends we are pretty much in our school uniforms."

Blaine didn't know where the time went, but the next thing they knew they were getting ready to wrap it up. Blaine had actually enjoyed himself, unlike he had originally thought. Their fans still seemed to be supporting them, even after what they had heard. As Jeff was saying their goodbyes, a comment on the screen caught his attention.

 **Why is Hunter hanging out in Chicago? I thought he went to school with you.**

Blaine's heart raced, and he hardly payed attention to what the rest of the guys were saying. They could tell he was distracted, but they chose not to comment on it while they ended the video. As soon as the video was done, Blaine was up off of the couch with the phone in his hand. He dialed his Uncle's number, and he answered on the second ring.

 **I hope you enjoyed getting a little bit more of Avery, Nick and Jeff's back stories in this chapter. As always, let me know what you think!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

"Uncle Peter, I think Hunter is in Chicago," Blaine said before Peter could even get a word in.

"Is your information based on the comment from the livestream?" Peter asked, shocking Blaine with his knowledge.

"Yes," Blaine said slowly. "How did you know about the livestream?"

"Well ever since Kurt told us all about tracking Hunter via social media site we've been watching all of yours," Peter explained. "All of you tweeted out a link to the livestream and we knew we had to watch. We've had a running printing of the comments so that we could pour over them for information on Hunter. As you saw, one panned out."

"So you are going to follow that lead?" Blaine asked.

"Yes, we are going to get in contact with that user and see what information they have and also scour Chicago for any other possible leads," Peter explained, and then added. "Thank you for letting me know. I must say you are really turning into quite a mature young man. I'm happy that this is your first response."

"He may hate me for it," Blaine said. "But at this point I think the only thing that is going to work is if Hunter is scared straight."

"I agree," Peter said with a nod.

They chatted for a few more moments before they both hung up. By that point Avery, Nick, and Jeff had caught up to Blaine and were questioning what was going on. Blaine explained the situation, and was distracted by his phone beeping in his hand. He looked down and saw a text message that made him smile.

 **Kurt: I think that was really brave of you to do that livestream. I'm so happy that you could be that open and honest**

 **Blaine: Thanks, Kurt. That means a lot.**

(-)

Hunter knew that it was a risk to cut his anklet and run off like he had done, but living like that was killing him. He was really going to try. For Blaine, he was willing to try. Halfway through his grounding though, he just couldn't take living under a microscope anymore. He had to get away. He cut his anklet, met his father's 'friend', got into his car, and drove all through the night to an unknown location to him. Upon arrival he had found out that it was Chicago. They were staying in this guy's apartment, waiting for some of the heat to die down. Hunter knew Blaine was furious with him. He gave the guy all the props in the world for making the situation work. Hunter couldn't though.

Chicago wasn't what Hunter expected. He thought he would meet up with his father and they would go back to the life they were living before. He thought he would immediately get into whatever game his father was planning. Before, Hunter had only stepped in on cons every once in a while. He mostly worked selling drugs to kids in his own high school or other high schools around the area that he created connections with. Since he didn't have connections in Chicago, he figured he was going to be part of a score.

So far that hadn't been the case. He had literally only spent his time indoors watching television. His father and his friend—Hunter had learned his name was Joshua—were out most of the day leaving Hunter to utter boredom. On Sunday, Hunter got to the point that he just couldn't take being alone in the apartment anymore. This was a mistake, but he was literally going stir crazy. What could a couple hours walking around do?

Hunter first walked to the famous "bean", figuring he had to see what all of the hype was about. He had to admit it was pretty cool seeing his reflection so distorted and at so many interesting different angles. Next he decided to take a cab to the Navy Pier and see the waterfront since he had heard so much about it. Now it was March, so it was still cold in Chicago. He was fairly bundled up, so he didn't expect what happened when he was walking along the Pier.

"Oh my God!" a girl squealed, coming up to him. "You are Hunter Clarington right? You are part of the YouTube group XVI!"

Hunter could only nod in his shock.

"Can I get a picture with you?" the girl asked. "None of my friends will believe I actually met you otherwise!"

Hunter agreed before even really thinking about it. She took a picture with him and then hurried off before he could really get his bearings. What the hell had just happened? Hunter headed back to the apartment shortly after that. Hunter was greeted by a surprise when he got back to the apartment. His father and Joshua were angrily waiting for him.

"What did I tell you about leaving the apartment?" Mr. Clarington yelled the moment Hunter stepped foot through the front door.

"I was going crazy here all alone dad," Hunter defended, taking off his jacket and hanging it on the wall hook.

"You could have been seen and ruined everything!" Joshua yelled, angering Hunter more than his own father had.

"I don't even fucking know you!" Hunter spat out. "I don't care what you think."

Joshua looked like he was about to lose it, but Mr. Clarington cut in before Joshua had a chance to respond.

"Were you spotted by anyone?" Mr. Clarington asked. "Was there anyone even remotely suspicious?"

"No, just some strange fan girl that asked me for a picture," Hunter said, rolling his eyes.

Joshua and Mr. Clarington both stopped on the spot.

"What do you mean fan girl?" Joshua asked.

"I was in some YouTube boy band back at school," Hunter explained, flopping down on the couch. He didn't see what the big deal was. "We apparently had more viewers than I thought. She knew who I was."

Mr. Clarington ran his fingers through his hair in frustration.

"Stay. Put." Mr. Clarington demanded and then turned on his heel to walk into Joshua's office in the apartment. Joshua followed and closed the door sharply behind him.

(-)

The next morning was back to school as usual for all of the boys. The break had been a nice relief from all of the stress of school work, but they were now back to the grind until Easter holidays. Blaine was happy when lunch finally rolled around. He was starving, and very much mentally exhausted. He was ready for a break. Jeff had to stay back to discuss something with their history teacher about his upcoming presentation in the class, so Blaine went ahead to the cafeteria. Along the way he spotted Nick visibly upset and talking on his cell phone. Blaine switched directions and headed over toward the boy. When Blaine walked up to Nick, he was angrily hanging up the phone call.

"Hey man," Blaine said cautiously. "Everything okay?"

Nick sighed, running his hands through his hair.

"Well I found out who spilled the original information about us on YouTube," Nick said, stowing his cell phone in his pants pocket. "It was my ex-girlfriend who decided that she couldn't leave well enough alone."

"You know it would have come out eventually," Blaine reasoned. "There are four of us that went to four different high schools where someone was bound to make the connection. None of us really left subtly from the sounds of it, or in my case attended the school subtly."

"That's true," Nick agreed. "But if you knew her, you'd understand. She did it out of pure spite. She can't get over the fact that I left her. At first she kept contacting me and trying to get me back. When that didn't work, she started to act like she was holier than thou and that I was the scum of the earth for committing a crime. That's what that comment was. It was her sharing with the rest of the world how messed up I am."

Blaine looked at Nick for a few moments.

"This is really bothering you, isn't it?" Blaine asked.

Nick nodded. "It has been for a while."

"Then I think you know what that means," Blaine said and then continued when Nick looked lost. "You are going to pick the next cover that we do. I've had the chance to vent how I felt, and now it's your turn. She clearly watches our videos, so now is your chance to get your word in."

Nick thought about it for a moment, and then nodded his agreement.

"I only wish I could see her face when she pulls up the video," Nick added with a laugh. "I know exactly what song I want to do."

The boys discussed this over lunch, and were so excited when they heard Nick's song choice. It was a personal favorite of Blaine's and he couldn't wait to have to chance to perform it.

(-)

Peter stepped off the plane Monday night in Chicago. All evidence was pointing to the fact that Hunter was in fact in Chicago, so Peter and Jones were sent to check it out while Diana stayed in the office to work things from there.

"Why Chicago?" Jones asked as they were walking along the airport.

"Huh?" Peter asked, very tired from his long hours over the last couple days.

"Did Walter Clarington have any connections in Chicago that you knew of?" Jones asked.

"No, he was usually very local to New York," Peter admitted. "He moved around within the city and the close suburbs, but he was strictly a New York man. What are you thinking?"

"Colorado made sense," Jones explained. "Hunter was in Colorado. Everywhere else typically seemed to be where he ran to after he pulled a job. Chicago seems out of his typical pattern."

Peter was catching on.

"You think he's working with someone else, someone who has connections in Chicago," Peter surmised. "Let me call Diana. I'm going to get her looking into any of his known associates and see if any of them have connections to Chicago. That way we could at least figure out who he is working with."

Peter pulled his phone out of his back pocket, only to find that it was ringing already with Diana's name across the screen.

"I was just about to call you," Peter exclaimed. "I have a job for you…"

"Peter," Diana said before Peter could go on any further. "I have some news for you that you are not going to believe."

"What?" Peter asked, his heart racing.

"They found Hunter," Diana said. "He's in custody at the FBI Chicago office. They are waiting for you to come."

"How did they find him?" Peter asked, catching the look of surprise on Jones' face at those words.

"This is the best part," Diana said. "He was zip-tied and dropped a block from a police station. The cops got an anonymous tip that told them the location and then when they got there, a note was attached to Hunter saying 'I'm Hunter Clarington, wanted by the FBI."

Peter's jaw dropped in his shock.

"You're kidding," Peter stuttered out.

"Not in the slightest," Diana replied. "I'm texting you the address now."

"Jones and I are on our way," Peter replied, shutting his phone.

Peter filled Jones in on the way to their rental car, leaving Jones in just as much shock as he was. It was about a half hour drive from the airport, and once they got there they parked in the garage below and headed up to where an agent was waiting for them. She was a tall blonde women who appeared to be in her 30s.

"You must be Agent Burke and Agent Jones," the woman greeted. "I'm Agent Miller."

"Nice to meet you," Peter and Jones replied, both taking turns shaking hands.

"He's right this way," Agent Miller gestured for them to follow. "He hasn't said a word since he was brought in. I don't know if he's in shock or just petulant."

"Probably a little bit of both," Jones replied.

By this point they had reached the outside of the interrogation room. The window gave an opportunity for Peter to study Hunter before the boy knew of his presence. The boy looked more tired than when Peter had last seen him. It looked like he had gone through a lot in the last couple days as well. He was in a black t-shirt with a pair of dark wash jeans. His shoulders were hunched and he was staring down at the table in front of him. His hands were cuffed to the table in front of him, and every few seconds he would fidget, causing the cuffs to rattle.

"I'll leave you to it," Agent Miller said, and then turned and walked down a different hallway than the way they had come from.

"Do you want me to go in with you?" Jones asked. "Or watch from out here?"

"I think I'll go in by myself first," Peter decided.

Jones nodded, and pulled up a chair. Peter headed toward the door. The moment he opened the door, Hunter's head snapped up to see what the noise was. His heart sank when he saw none other than Agent Burke walk through the door.

"So we meet again in an FBI office," Peter said, walking in and sitting down across from Hunter at the table.

Hunter shifted and sighed.

"How is Blaine?" Hunter asked, ignoring Peter's statement. "He's not in trouble is he?"

"He was interrogated, but no, he was not in trouble," Peter said. "Once we proved he had nothing to do with it, he was off the hook. He's not too happy with you right now, though."

"I don't blame him," Hunter mumbled in reply.

"So, you want to tell me why you decided to run?" Peter asked, getting right to the point.

"It was stupid," Hunter admitted.

"Well that much is obvious," Peter replied. "But yet I'm sure there was much more to it than that."

Hunter sighed again, and delved into his story all about how he was going stir-crazy and how his father's friend had contacted him—he had knocked at Hunter's window one night and then had been communicating through written letters left at the window since then. Peter made a mental note that Hunter living on the first floor of the house was a bad idea in hindsight. They had come up with the plan and Hunter knew the exact moment to cut the anklet and run.

"So what happened when you got to Chicago?" Peter asked.

"They forced me to stay inside the apartment the whole time and I was bored out of my mind," Hunter said. "I went stir crazy and decided to wander around Chicago when they were out during the day. I didn't take into account that anyone could possibly recognize me. A girl did though, and she asked for a picture with me. When my dad and Joshua found out they went crazy. They left me alone to talk for a couple hours. I fell asleep on the couch. The next thing I knew I was being zip tied and gagged and dropped off at some location. The police were quickly there and now here we are."

Hunter went to run his hands through his hair, but was obviously stopped by the fact that his hands were cuffed to the table in front of him. He sighed heavily once more.

"I can't believe I threw it all away for nothing," Hunter admitted. "I know I deserve Juvie, but what a terrible way to go."

Peter wanted to laugh at that, but kept his composure.

(-)

Tuesday afternoon found Baine, Nick, Jeff and Avery practicing Nick's choice of song in the music room during their designated time slot.

"You guys are sounding great," Mr. Fitzgerald complimented having just watched their full performance. "Are you ready for me to film it?"

The boys nodded and began again from the top.

 _We're taking bats to neighborhoods_

 _Where we don't belong_

 _Where they say we can't go_

Blaine couldn't help but smile while singing these lyrics. They were relevant to each of them in a different way. That was kind of the point though.

 _Hey! I can say_

 _We're all just fucked up kids and that's ok_

 _If we don't belong_

 _To anyone or anything_

For Nick's sake, he really hoped his ex-girlfriend got that this song was picked with her in mind. He hoped that it would act as a way to help Nick let her go and move on.

When they finished, Nick gave an audible sigh of relief and they all turned towards him to see how he was doing.

"You okay?" Avery asked.

"Yeah, it kind of feels cathartic to do that song," Nick admitted, standing up from the drum kit. "It's the first time I've really admitted to feeling like I'm a fucked up kid, but also that it's okay. That I'm more than that too."

Jeff pulled him into a hug.

"Oh Nicky," Jeff said with a laugh.

Nick rolled his eyes at the nickname. He hated it when anyone called him Nicky, but for some reason allowed Jeff to do so.

Since they were the last group to have their time in the music room that meant that it was now time for dinner. They packed up all of their belongings, said their thanks to Mr. Fitzgerald, and headed across campus to the cafeteria. Along the way they saw a site that made all four boys stop in their tracks.

"Uncle Peter?" Blaine said, looking at his Uncle in confusion at first and then turning to the boy beside him. "Hunter?"

"Blaine, good to see you," Peter said, pulling Blaine into a hug.

"What are you two doing here?" Blaine asked.

"It's a long story," Peter replied. "I will fill you in over breakfast tomorrow morning. I have to go get Hunter checked into his program."

Peter and Hunter were gone before Blaine could really process what was happening. He followed Nick, Jeff, and Avery to the cafeteria in silence and then finally spoke up when they were all seated with their dinners.

"What did he mean program?" Blaine asked, putting his fork down in confusion when his Uncle's words finally fully registered.

"He must be in IMP, or Intensive Mentor Program," Jeff said in between bites of his fried chicken.

"The what?" Blaine asked, looking over at his blonde friend in confusion.

Jeff and Nick both looked towards Avery. Avery looked back and forth between the two of them before sighing and putting down his own fork.

"It's a program for students that need to be more closely monitored," Avery explained, and then continued at Blaine's look. "I was a part of it my sophomore year."

"What do you mean?" Blaine asked. "Like when you came here you were a part of it?"

"No I was with the regular student body at first," Avery said. "But about a couple weeks into school I was on a community service project and decided that it was the perfect moment to run away. We are much more closely monitored than I realized, and was caught fairly quickly. I was placed into the IMP program right away and was in it until that January after winter break."

"What is it though?" Blaine asked, still not quite understanding what the program entailed.

"Basically it's like their version of in-school-suspension, but all the time," Avery explained. "You live in a separate dorm building than the rest of the students. There is usually only about three to five students in it at a time. There are no doors on your room. There are about six faculty members on around the clock supervision. They live in rooms right next to you, although they do have doors. One of the faculty members is always awake to either prevent trouble or there if you need to talk. You take classes in that building on the second floor. It's intensive. When I did it there was just me and another guy Marcus, so we had a 3-1 ratio of us to teachers. Your day pretty much consists of getting up, doing class work, and working."

"So you basically stay in that building?" Blaine asked.

"No, I worked in the cafeteria," Avery said. "Marcus worked in the library. Both of us were closely supervised, of course. They also try to include some community service projects on every weekend."

Blaine nodded, processing this information.

"I'm not going to say I loved it," Avery said. "It was hell at times, but it was effective. I got to really know all six members of faculty and Marcus really well. He was a senior at the time so he is no longer here. He actually came into the school and was immediately placed in the program at the request of his parents. It's not usual, but it does happen."

"So in January you just got to go back to being a regular student?" Blaine asked.

"Not exactly," Avery replied. "I had to meet with the Headmaster every week at first, then it moved to every other week. Now it's once a month."

"I have to say I'm surprised my Uncle didn't ship Hunter off to juvie," Blaine admitted.

"I can say that at times Hunter is going to feel like he is locked up," Avery said, cringing at the memory of his first couple weeks. "I hated it at first. Over time though, when I really got to know everyone it wasn't so bad. I think your Uncle figured that it would be just as effective, if not better than juvie. He is getting access to some of the best education in the country."

They continued to eat their meal, veering off to different topics before Blaine came to realization.

"So you are telling me that I made friends with the guy who stole the Headmaster's car and a guy who has to meet with the Headmaster once a month?" Blaine asked with a laugh. "I could hardly make more conspicuous friends. Only Jeff here has no connection with the headmaster."

Avery and Nick laughed at that, while Jeff blushed.

"Think again," Nick said, patting Jeff on the shoulder.

Jeff crossed his arms over his chest and pouted. Blaine looked at him in confusion.

"What did you do?" Blaine asked slowly.

"Nothing," Jeff replied. "These two are making things up."

"You wish," Avery said, finally controlling his laughter enough to speak. "Jeffrey here decided that since he had no way to skip classes anymore that he would start a campaign against the uniform. He found creative ways to bend the rules from wearing different ties to replacing the shoes with converse. One day he decided to wear all of his clothes inside out. I think he got sent to the Headmaster's office and got detention daily for the first month he was here. That's actually how Nick and Jeff met. Nick had detention for skipping class once and Jeff had detention for his dumb uniform protests."

"They weren't dumb!" Jeff mumbled. "And don't call me Jeffrey!"

Blaine couldn't help but laugh. He wasn't even remotely surprised by this information, not knowing Jeff the way he did.

Blaine was about to get up to throw away his trash when he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. Blaine pulled it out and saw that Kurt was calling him. He immediately stepped to the side and answered the phone.

"Hey Kurt, what's up?" Blaine asked.

"You were right," Kurt said, his voice sounding oddly scratchy as if he had been crying.


End file.
